#I put it under a read more! This got chonky.

[mxldito]

character info sheet.

name.

Coyote Menendez

name meaning.

A name chosen on a whim, there is a lot of symbolism that turned out to be attached to it. Coyotes are seen as cowardly pests by some, an honorable animal to be revered by others. They're intelligent tricksters and symbols of sexuality within their cultural background. That's something that deeply resonates with them.

alias( ses ).

They've had a few, though they're usually throwaways that they promptly forget.

two pictures you like of your character.

three headcanons you never told anyone.

i : During their life as a human, Coyote had a crush on a coworker of theirs named Morris. They were often frustrated with his spinelessness, despite this they constantly defended him. Nothing ever came of their feelings anyways. ii : Coyote never acknowledged their queerness until they became a vampire. They'd feel things, both in terms of sexuality and gender, and push it down so as to not have to grapple with it. This probably only contributed to their misery. iii : Coyote was a bowlcut baby. Lmao.

three things your character likes to do in their free time.

i : People watching ii : Journaling about feeding iii : Stealing street signs with Morgan.

three people your character loves.

Morgan O'Broin - He's their muscle, rock, partner in crime, and confidant. There's a mutual understanding between them that I don't think Coyote's had with anybody else. Their friendship is so sincere, funny, and loving in an unorthodox way. They love grossing him out with dirty jokes, he loves physically pestering them. Coyote considered his friendship one of the greatest instances of luck they've experiences.

Agape Dacosta - She was one of Hugh's Childer and his wife. Being older, she often looked over Coyote and was the one of the only ones to calm them down during their rages and panics. She was more Sire to Coyote than Hugh was, teaching them ways of hunting and Auspex where he'd refuse. They haven't seen each other since Coyote was kicked out. She's since run away from Hugh, but Coyote's affection for her remains. They keep her in their prayers.

Themselves - Something of a cop out, I know, but they really mean it when they say it. Coyote's human life was a long series of self loathing, denying themselves identity and joy for fear it wouldn't last. Eternity lies before them, but now they know who they are and what they're meant to do. This new existence, this new skin, this new perspective, they're so fucking in love with it. They can face themselves and smile about it. They'll never let anybody rob them of this love.

two things your character regrets.

i. Coyote occasionally finds themselves regretting getting involved with Hugh. Admittedly, the first time they met him, they knew something was off about him but they ignored the feeling. They've grown almost comfortable with vampirism, but the way that it happened to them and how they were treated afterwards is a different story. If they could've chosen to be Embraced by somebody else, they would.

ii: There was a girl who died. Coyote and their Coterie didn't kill her but they led her to her death. Being so caught up in trying to complete tasks for somebody else, they didn't say anything when they had the chance to. They didn't want to disappoint. But the manner of that girl's death haunts them. It wasn't a clean or short one. She died twice.

three phobia's your character has.

i. Fire. Small flames are nothing, but full-sized blazes are another story. ii. Losing control. They don't want to face catatonia ever again. iii. Failure. Losing everything they're worked for would set them over the edge.

Tagged by: @godpyre (Thank ya!! :3)

Tagging: @yunalai @ratwhsprs @fangmother @sortilegum @charmantevamp @r3dblccd @twyred and you!

#I put it under a read more! This got chonky. #⮚ WTF Is A Canon??? I'll Fucking Get You. #⮚ Hand Me That Rock. I'm Gonna Hit You With It. (Tag Memes)

[yukipri]

Heroes & Villains Clone Backpack Review!

The Heroes and Villains Clone Troopers collection is here!!

I'm absolutely ECSTATIC about this collection, bc I've wanted a general clones/GAR collection (not TBB/332nd, as cool as they are) for AGES. I begged a rep for this collection in person at last year's NYCC, so now that it's here, of course I ordered ASAP. Got a few other items that I'll review too, but starting off with the backpack!

This is the "Grand Army Tech Backpack"! There are tons of little nods to the clones/the GAR throughout.

Detailed review of the design under cut!

First, the top flap is a really neat fusion design of both the clones' helmets & ARC pauldrons. Only visible from a top-down view, the black bit in the middle actually looks like the clones' visors, which is a design thing I love that they also did with their Ahsoka Trooper backpacks. It's got the helmet vents over the blue, and the sides can come out to look more like shoulder pauldrons too!

On this flap, there's a lil black velcro patch that reads "Elite Clones" in Aurebesh. In the middle, you can swap out the designations of 4 included clones: Rex, Fives, Echo, and Cody! (love them ALL, but sorry I've a Cody bias) I LOVE that they have this customization option, since all us clone lovers have our biases😅 (will include more details on this in a follow-up reblog1)

Next, we've got the stretchy cross bands across the front middle, which are practical because they can stretch to hold stuff, but visually, are clearly a nod to the straps over ARC kamas. A bit hard to see in photos, but they cross over a Republic Cog on the white pleather!

Below that is the 3-button ARC chest pouch-inspired pocket. There's a GAR patch next to it, and both of these are on top of another flat pouch. There are 2 pouches on both sides of this, giving the appearance of ARC holsters.

On one side, there's a detachable "gadget case," which is really fun! However, one comment: I don't love how the zipper opens on the bottom, which means that if you want to put anything inside it without securing it tightly into a compartment, it'll fall straight out🥲Could be solved if it opened at the top instead!

Both sides have very stretchy bottle holders that hold my chonky thermos from Batuu with ease. Also, loops so you can easily hook carabiners (and then add more keychains/charms for more personalization eyyy)

Overall, I absolutely adore this bag. It's got an awesome design that's clearly got a ton of thought put into it, and is an amazing homage to GAR clones and specifically ARC troopers!

Because Tumblr posts only allow one video per post, please keep an eye on the reblogs because I'll add videos showing how the velcro designations swap out + a demonstration of how much this thing fits.

This post is NOT sponsored, just a fan sharing honest reviews.

However, here's my non-influencer “refer a friend” code, if you want $25 off $75!

And here's a direct link to the bag itself on the Heroes & Villains site!

Hope this review was helpful!

#HeroesVillainsBrand #heroes and villains #clone troopers #clone trooper #arc trooper #starwars #tcw #the clone wars #merch #review #YukiPri rambles

[tinylantern]

Would you be willing to share some Arthur headcanons?

OH GOODNESS, I don't know how many of these are similar to things other people have said before or are just big Captain Obvious moments, but hey, let's have fun!

(Under a read more because this got chonky)

The game never gave us a total number of siblings and flip flopped between whether he had brothers and sisters or just brothers, but I've personally given him seventeen siblings: twelve older brothers (as indicated by his 13th prince title), three older sisters, and two younger sisters.

His relationship with them is distant at best. He doesn't dislike them and none of them dislike him, but even the ones he was friendly with as a child he has since drifted away from and he only contacts them when it's matters relating to the kingdom.

This one is the result of watching Beatrice's final love event in RF5: the "D. Lawrence" part of his name is actually a pseudonym he uses because there would be no way for him to conduct business with ordinary clients if he signed his letters and documents with Arthur Lauryn de la Norad (and we know he hates his title anyway.)

ARTHUR. VENTUSWILL. FRIENDSHIP. I was comparing and contrasting their situations and I firmly believe those two would have a good relationship! The more lighthearted moments consist of Arthur teasing Ventuswill as horrendously as Frey/Lest or Leon (and Venti subsequently threatening to execute him and then cover it up as an unfortunate accident.)

One thing that has always disappointed me is that the bachelor/bachelorette friendship groups are so divided purely because Guys and Gals. That said, besides Margaret, I think Arthur would be very friendly with Xiao Pai since he does a lot of orders for the inn and they often talk about the places they've been to (Xiao having traveled so much when she was younger and all.)

On the list of "People in Selphia Who Are Scariest When Mad," he ranks 2nd. You don't want to make Arthur mad. He doesn't even show it on his face or in his actions that he is mad. You just know.

A fun game the young adults in town like to play is "Arthur's cuteness scale," where Arthur is given a person, monster, or object and asked to rank how cute they are on a scale of 1 to 10. (Thus far, the lowest he's ever ranked something is a 4.9. They're still trying to find something he'd flat out rank as a 1 without going for something obvious like Ethelberd.)

My friend Icy and I have given Arthur a pet Fake Turnip named Pip. Pip is love, Pip is life. Arthur gets so many accessories for him it's not even funny. He also has his own plant pot in Arthur's office and Arthur's heart can barely take it when he makes a little cooing noise when he's being "watered."

Fun story relating to Pip: Porcoline initially had a "No Pets" rule at the Selphia Sainte-Coquille Manor. The stated reason was for sanitation reasons at the restaurant (which was true,) but the real reason was because Porcoline knew Arthur would adopt every cute monster on sight and the manor would soon be overflowing with woolies, buffamoos, and god knows what else. Arthur was very unhappy when he found out the truth and spent the better part of the next week sulking in his office.

Pip, however, is the sole exception because Porcoline deemed him "a polite young turnip." Arthur personally believes it's because he looks edible and he's still worried Porcoline might try to eat him one day.

Arthur stresses out big time when it comes to cooking. He's obviously not a terrible cook and can make a good chunk of the in-game recipes without too much issue, but he gets antsy when something requires more steps or isn't cooking fast enough since he could be using the time more productively. (He does state himself that he can't sit still and that's why he's terrible at fishing.)

Once he and Frey get married though, he puts in the effort to make more food himself because he is ever so delighted to see the smile on Frey's face when she's eating tempura udon or pumpkin flan he made himself. (Oops, slipped some Asafure in here.)

#rune factory #rune factory 4 #rf4 #rf4 arthur #headcanons #asks #answered #anon

[muffindaddystyles]

Can you write overprotective long hair harry imagine?? Like he always hovers the reader when she is doing something or even nothing. Or when she needs to run errands he always go with even though its not required. And when reader fell sick he is full on mommy daddy mode dom!h vibes

A/N: OOPS I GOT EXCITED AND WENT OVERBOARD WITH IT :D

Harry’s awfully sweet. He’s a literal sweetheart with those marble sepia eyes, hazelnut curls and that big golden kind heart of his's.

But, to people he’s intimidating. From the black loiter of tattoos, a silver of piercing to the corner of his plush bottom lip and those long curls of his's that frays his broad strong shoulders turns everyone too giddy to talk to him and he's okay with that – bunch of loosers anyways whom he doesn’t want to waste his time on chit-chatting.

Then Y/N came into his life and his world flipped upside down, in a beautiful way (where he felt like floating into the crashing waves of crystal sea). It felt like she made him see the world through pink heart-shaped glasses and everyone’s just bursting into rainbows, puffaw! Boom! Their heads blasting with colourful confetti and ribbons.

Even though his slight grouchiness towards people lessened he still doesn’t gives two fucks before punching the shit out of someone if they in any way hurts, be rude and try to take physical and emotional advantage of, Y/N.

His bunny.

He’s too protective of her. And why wouldn’t he? She’s his everything. His little miracle and his hype-person, his lovie.

He’s the softest peach for her. The guy who walks and everyone scrambles away to give him a way, is whipped for his girlfriend.

He’s always having his strong arm looped around her waist when they’re out and walking, going to hold her hands instead if she’s too wiggly, keeping her close to his chest while he holds their coffees and sweets.

Whenever they’re doing grocery he’s always wheeling the cart around how much Y/N insists and pouts, he likes it that way. Hearing her blabber and skim her eyes down the ingredients labelled on the products then tossing it anyway with a shrug – makes him want to smooch her wet in kisses.

If they’re partying out with friends. Which they rarely do, (Y/N sometimes makes fun of them saying they’re getting too domestic day by day) he’s always having her put in his lap, his screwed up expression lazing when the alcohol starts to kick in and he’s just a blubbering mess of nonsense, and a very horn dog with his cock bloating up in his tight skinny jeans.

Not that he doesn’t let her have a breather and enjoy herself. He indeed does, they’ve a healthy relationship where they keep trust and faith in eachother.

But, sometimes he gets super jealous when people steal his little girlfriend away from him and once home he’s cuddling and oodling her, kissing her face all over with loud smacks and not letting her be away from him another second even it’s too bring him water or to get rid of his smelly socks.

Other times. When he’s particularly very jealous. The serious ones where Y/N unintentionally spends a tad more time at some of her classmates to wind up their upcoming project, he’s driving himself to pick her up and knocking at the door harshly and then dragging her out of there not letting her carry her stuff and huffing and puffing while throwing her things in the backseat.

Because Jeremy’s a sore rascal who’s shit at hiding his crush for Y/N and he should know better to whom she belongs. His innocent baby is too naive towards the possible hints and evil intentions of people.

“Oi. What got into you today?” She brushes the loose curl that escaped from his bun and let her fingers slide down his tight set angry jaw staring him a bit concerned upon seeing him this furious and ruffled up from nowhere.

“You’re mine,” Is all he'd respond. Smashing his lips against hers in a an ardent kiss and glide his palm down her ass to squeeze it and bring her closer grinning when she squeals into his mouth giving him a chance to slip his tongue in and kiss her deeper and sloppier.

“You’re a silly geese.” She giggles whisper into the mess of pecks and lock her elbows around his neck to give him an eskimo kiss.

“Watch y’mouth.” He glares her intensely loving the way Y/N gulps timidly bobbing her head.

“You’ll get a spanking today,” He always likes to warn her before hand. He wants her comfortable with him in every case and it’s downgrade monstrous to treat the person you love like a mean bitch out of blue -- so whenever she deserves a punishment he already announces her of it, warming her to the idea and giving her time to back away if she doesn’t want it.

“What did I’do now!” She whines and he nibbles onto his knuckle glancing her way in disbelief other hand on steering wheel, “What did y'do?” He asks her sternly. Spreading his palm over her thigh and squeezing it grimly.

“Did y'even care to look at the time, Y/N?” Oh boy. She’s in real trouble. Her name on his tongue never fails to turn her insides gooey and pause her heartbeat horribly. A red light for her to being bratty before she falls into the deep black dig of trouble.

Reaching home. He’s throwing her on the bed and demanding her to lay still on her tummy while he puts a pillow under her and spanks her bum sore with his rings imprinting her skin pink, though he never forgets to take care of her afterwards – putting a cool cream to soothe the burn and letting her sleep on his chest so she wouldn’t come in contact with the sheets as he kneads her asscheeks with gentle hands.

.

He could never have his hands to himself when she’s cooking and baking for them. Always, poking and prodding around having her head tucked under his chin, her embraced in his arms from back swaying them along to Hozier while she reads the recipe she wrote on one of the tiles.

“Stop!” She giggles, squirming in his arms when he blows raspberries against the dip of her neck and then creates growly noises biting and lapping into her skin, “You’re gonna burn our lunch!” She pressed her hips against his crotch to push him away and that warmed him more, delving his fingers more into her hips with a throaty groan.

“We could have a takeout.” His breath shuddery against her ear as he tries to pry the spatula away from her and kiss her grumpy whines down when the pots actually got burned, “I’ll wash and scratch them.” He’d assure picking her up and wrapping her legs around his hips and slipping his fingers in her hair to tug them and bring her mouth down against his’s to taste her.

“Wants to fuck you so bad, baby. My cock’s been weepy fo’ hours without your touch.” He groans, taking her hand and sneaking it inside his joggers to make her feel how stiff and erect he’s for her.

“I just gave you a blowie in the morning!”

“Blowie isn’t equivalent to fucking!”

.

“What y'readin,?” He scoots closer to her end of sofa with a smirk and towers over her trying to take a peek of whatever she’s reading with such intensity and then rake his warm palms up her calves to lay them over his thighs while he snuggles her wrapping a chonky blanket around them.

“Shhh baby girl, just want you to be more comfy.” He mumbles into her hair scratching his short nails against her scalp in soothing motions and watch her melt against his touch, eyes fluttering as she lurks dangerously to the verge of sleep.

“You always do that. Whenever the hot part’s about to come, you make me all sleepy.” She mutters laying her head against his clavicles gazing him up with hazy eyes, sighing in feign disappointment when he grins down at her in quite victory and gives her a sloppy kiss.

“What do y'need erotica fo’ baby? When your man’s the living walking momentum of sex.” He pouts, grazing his teeth down her neck and leaving a fresh hickey at her throat.

“That’s infact not, true. You’re such a cutie!” She beams up at him never failing to give him dancing butterflies in his stomach and he doesn’t admits it but he likes getting treated soft and gentle by his girlfriend.

“Such a shame. My own little love doesn’t find me sexy.” He grumps dramatically making her scramble hesitantly and turn to him in their tight embrace, cradling his face in her cold palms, “No. No. I find you sexy. I just don’t like sexualising you.” If Harry didn’t turn into a puddle before he indeed did now as he melted into her touch and kissed the inside of her hands lovingly.

“You’re sucha sap!” He whispers at her in fake offence and plant his lips against hers, patting her bum to make her hug him more tightly.

.

On cleaning and laundry day’s. He’s always helping her. As they scrub and mop the floors together, might fuck on them bubbly floors too if Harry’s lusty gaze remains on her spilling tits for too long.

“Thinks your floral bra needs a wash too, moppet.” His gradual attempts to lure her with his fingers stroking her thighs seductively always turns into a win when she nods shyly into his neck and let him have an easy access to her panties.

They’re always having a warm, full of essence bath together cleaning and washing the dirt off eachother after that.

Then sharing a cuppa tea while folding their clothes together on the bed and he’s always trying to tackle her into mattress when she laughs at his terribly folded clothes compared to her neatly binded ones.

“Your sucha menace,” He jests with his nose skewered up while he smacks her ass.

“Talk for yourself, Styles.” She retorts, tangling her knee around his waist and pulling him down into him. Puffing out relaxed breaths upon feeling safe and protected under his weight and Harry always smiles into the crook of her neck when she tries to cuddle him as if she wants to be his skin.

..

He’s the most daddiest when she’s drunk, sick or stressed.

Never letting her go out of his sight when she’s dancing on the floor with her friends. If some man even tries to approach her and breaths in her direction he’s sprinting towards her and pawing at her hips to situate her closer to him whilst blowing those potential guys off with a monotone expression.

“Harry! Do a lil dancey dance with me!” She giggles, making him sway with her and looking up at him with glassy floaty eyes.

“Bunny. ‘s late, time to go home.” He tells her, pinching her chin to plant his lips against hers and she squirms giving him a timid smile, “Okie. But I’ve to pee.”

“Me too!” Her friends chimes from behind her and Harry rolls his eyes playfully, gesturing all of them to follow him.

“C’mon you spies, not lettin’ ya’ll go alone.”

He waits for them outside the washroom while they do their business and he has his arms always splayed open for when his lovie comes back and he’s welcoming her in his embrace warmly with a sweet smile.

Dying with fond injecting in his every vein when she slurs and blabbers, “Home.”

Walking her up the stairs of their flat’s building is the most hefty struggle while she’s a sleepy, clumsy and giggly muck of doe gleaming eyes and swollen pretty lips drooling over Harry testing his patience while he makes her take one step at a time.

“Darling, bunny, just some mo' steps lovin’.” He coos at her, putting a firm hand under her bum and heaving her up into him so she doesn’t falls.

“Mhmmm you’re so pretty, daddy.” Harry’s head snaps in surprise as he stares down at her in adoring amusement and push her head under his chin while she slings her arms around his waist lazily.

Sometimes, she gets him so flustered he doesn’t know how to respond.

She whines and cries in dishevelment when Harry makes her sit on the cold marble counter and wipes her makeup off.

“I just wan’ to sleep!” She toes at his torso trying to push him away but he grabs it and tuts, glowering at her strictly, “You’re g'na complain in the mornin’. Sleepin’ with makeup makes ye' breakout remember?” When she still huffs and slumps giving him a hard time to clean her he’s pinching her chin and giving her a gentle jerk.

“Bunny. Stop with ye' battiness.” He grunts not letting his facade slip when she mewls stroking her cheek up and down his lightly stubble covered cheek softly.

“Else what? Y'never punish a sleepy bunny.” She smirks at him foppishly and lazily knowing damn well that one of thing Harry doesn’t do’s tease or punish her when she’s tuckered out and on the edge of sleeping on him.

“You don’t test me bratty woman.” She squeals when he takes hold of her panties to pull them down her legs, slapping her mound once discarding it in the hamper and he sighs when she’s already snoring lightly, slobbering his throat with her mouth parted comically.

After pattering her face with loving kisses he’s tucking her under the layers of blankets and letting her use him as her stuffie.

..

“Aw poor baby.” He mumbles, kissing her forehead when he finds her burning up against him and he’s quickly rummaging for thermometer from the night stand and the tissues he had stashed for emergencies.

“I don’t feel good,” His heart breaks when Y/N croaks out weakly and tries to crawl up his chest to stuff her face in his musky neck but her frail limbs gives out making her cry out.

“It’s okay bunny, ‘s okay. How but I make you some soup. Then y'take your medicines like a good girl of mine, then if your condition gets worse we’ll go to doctor, yeah baby?” He talks to her gently and sweetly, stroking her hair and peppering kisses to her temples.

“Just last bite, moppet.” Harry hovers the spoon infront of her and sighs when she shakes her head pushing his wrist away, “I’ll puke.” She sniffs blowing her nose harshly in the tissue .

“The bin’s right here, bunny.” He smoothens his hand down her spine putting the tray aside carefully to snuggle and comfort her as she cries softly against his chest.

“’M so sorry baby, you’ll be alright in the morning.” He couldn’t see her in such condition. It pulls and tugs at his heart so painfully he feels himself hurting.

“Oi. Why you crying, hmm?” He cups her cheek and makes her look at him as she skims her eyes away from him jn embarrassment.

“I —- You’re so caring and loving, treats me so good and it makes me c.. cr–-,” She hiccups finding it hard to breath and Harry rubs her back, whispering affinities in her ear making her finally sob, “Cry....” He chuckles softly pelting kisses upon kisses on her puffy eyelids, soaky dried up cheeks, her frowned up forehead, her wobbly chin and her nipping love bites down her chest then blowing raspberries at his own slick covering her skin making her giggle through her hiccups.

“I love you.” She whispers droopily, head lulling to his chest when the effect of medicine finally starts to kick in.

“I love you too, I want my healthy and happy bunny back.” He mumbles, inhaling a huge puff of her scent and squishes her lovingly.

#harry styles imagines #harry styles one shots #harry styles fanfictions #harry styles fanfic #harry styles smut #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles fluff #harry styles blurb #harry smut #cute harry #harry styles #fluff #harry angst #hsh #dom harry

[fiskerpen]

Archetype 101

Hey, @breaker-apart! I am your Secret Santa for the Psychonauts Secret Santa! Here’s a story on Raz teaching the interns how to summon archetypes! Hope you enjoy!

[Story’s under the Read More. Fair warning-it is chonky.] 

“Scanning...Access Denied”

Raz groaned as he leaned his head against the dorm room door. The stupid ThinkerPrint scanner for his door had been on the fritz for no good reason for the past couple of days, and it was especially finicky today. He just wanted to work on the flower pot he was painting for Lili while he had a break from his studies, and instead, he's stuck outside his room like a racecar driver who left his engine keys in his car. He wished someone would fix the scanner, or at the very least he could slip under the door-

 An idea popped into his head.

Raz took a deep breath before closing his eyes, putting his hands to his temples. He focused all his thoughts on what he’s looking for until he manifested a pencil in mid-air. He visualized the sketching process in his mind, from the rough shapes down to the details, until he could feel a familiar friend pop back into existence.

“Yippee! Hiya, Clone!”

“Hey Archie,” Raz replied, waving back to his archetype, “Nice to see you! Hey, can you help me open that door, please?”

“Sure thing, buddy!” the paper-thin projection responded in his usual chipper tune before taking a good look under the door. He then quickly slid under the door and into the dorm room.

“Uh oh. No door lock!”

“No problem!” Raz answered, “There should be a button near the door…”

“Like this?” the archetype replied just moments before the doors opened.

“Exactly! Thank you so much-”

“Hi, new friends!”

Raz turned to the direction his archetype was waving to and saw Morris and Sam staring at the both of them.

“Um…” Morris finally broke the silence, “what the heck is that?”

“Hey, it’s Raz’s twin!”

“Not quite, Sam. Guys, this is my Archetype-”

“He’s my clone!” the archetype chimed in, scooting to the two junior psychonauts, “He's a little confused, but otherwise very bright!”

“Thanks, Archie,” Raz sighed.

“How did you make this?” Morris asked, lightly poking the psychic paper person.

“I simply summoned him from my subconscious via mental projection,” Raz explained, “much like a thought bubble, only-”

“Hey,” Sam interrupted, “if there's two of me, I could get the diner working in no time at all!”

“I really think you should rethink the pancake recipe,” Morris interjected, “but I'd love extra help at KLOB! Not that your brother isn't helpful—Queepie has great taste in tunes!”

“Hey, how about you teach us your trick?”

“Really?” Raz replied, feeling himself grin with pride.

“Yeah!” Morris responded.

“How does tonight sound?” Raz asked.

“By the campfire in the Questionable Area!” Raz's doppelganger added, “we could make snacks by the fire!”

“Perfect!” Morris replied

“Yeah, I can have Fur Lancelot watch the diner during your class!”

“We'll see you at the campfire, then!” Raz said

“See you tonight, guys!” The archetype chimed, waving goodbye to the two teens.

“See you!” Sam replied before she and Morris headed off.

“Woohoo!” Archie cheered, turning into an airplane and doing a loop around Raz before heading inside the dorm room, “we get to hang out with other people!”

“Yeah!” he replied as he followed the airplane inside, “just need to figure out what snacks to serve…”

**********

“...And it's perfect! Set it down!”

“Thanks, Archie!” Raz replied as he placed the last of the towels near the fireplace. Having his projection see how the layout looked from the stage helped him set up the campfire area just so for his presentation. Near the towels surrounding the fire was a cooler of beverages and a fold-up table with various skewers and plates of grilled corn, bowls of gnocchi, and even the fixings for smores (Raz wanted to make more, but he has yet to figure out any vegetarian campfire meals). He got some electric lanterns set up at opposite ends of the stage to add extra lighting to the area. All that's left is…

“Hey, I need to set up the fire now-”

“Say no more, clone! Bye-bye for now!”

And with that, the paper version of him poofed himself out of existence.

With nothing to accidentally catch aflame, he focused on projecting his thoughts of Lili's prowess in pyrokinesis onto the pile of fresh firewood he placed in the center. In a flash, the fire roared to life, burning brightly in the evening. There was something about the glow of the campfire that made him feel like he was back at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp. For some reason, being at camp and training his psychic powers for the first time simultaneously felt much longer and much shorter than a few weeks ago. He could still see the opening speech Oleander gave at the start of camp (and his adventure, really).

“The Human Mind,” Raz found himself recreating Oleander’s speech from the first day of camp as he slowly walked up and down the stage, “600 miles of synaptic fiber, five and a half ounces of cranial fluid, 1500 grams of complex neural matter…a three-pound pile of dreams. But I'll tell you what it really is. It is the ultimate battleground—and, the ultimate weapon. The wars of this modern age—The Psychic Age—are fought somewhere between these damp, curvaceous undulations.”

“Is that Coach Oleander’s speech?”

Raz yelped as he jumped away from Sam. “When did you come in?” he sheepishly asked.

“At some passage about cranial fluid.”

“Hey, Raz!” Morris shouted, toting a radio in hand, “nice spread!”

“Thanks! I tried to get as much food as I could.”

“Wait, where are the hotdogs?”

“Well, I didn’t know what to serve, since I didn’t know if anyone would get dinner before coming here-”

Raz’s eyes widened when he realized the person he was talking to was neither Sam nor Morris.

“Gisu?!? What are you doing here?”

“Morris invited me,” Gisu replied, grabbing a big ear of corn, “and the rest of us.”

As Raz looked out to the hollow log archway separating the campfire area from the rest of the Questionable Area, he saw Adam come in, with Lizzie and Norma following close by.

“...You even invited Norma?” Raz added quietly, groaning.

“Lizzie’s got an eye on her,” Sam replied, grabbing a bowl of gnocchi.

“Hey, Raz,” Adam greeted, “I heard you’re teaching us Mental Projection, and wanted to see!”

“I heard you got snacks,” Lizzie said, walking up to the table.

“What, no hot dogs?”

“I know already, Norma.”

“Buzz off, sis,” Lizzie responded, “he’s got an obscene amount of smores fixings.”

As the other Junior Psychonauts were chattering, Raz noticed a tall figure with slicked-back hair, followed by a young girl with her hair in two large, ring-like curls

“...Dion? Mirtala?”

“Hi, Pooter!” Mirtala chimed, “I wanted to see your big presentation!”

“And the smores table! I saw you eyeballing the chocolate the entire afternoon,” his older brother added, “As for me, I’m just here for crowd control, and in case we need to restock the table.”

“Are you going to ask her out?” Mirtala asked, leaning in towards Dion.

“Tala!” he replied, turning bright red at his younger sister’s question, “Shush!”

“Okay! You gotta do it sooner or later, though!”

As Mirtala and Dion sat down with the rest of the teens, it sank into Raz that more people had come to this than he thought there would. Not that it was entirely bad—he kind of wanted to hang out with the Junior Psychonauts outside of assignments and missions, and the more, the merrier. Still, the mere idea of screwing it up in front of so many people made his heart race more than he’d like to.

This isn’t the circus, he thought to himself, Nor is this a mission. You’re not going to fall or die if you screw it up.

After a bit, he clapped to get the attention of everyone at the campfire.

“I wanna start by thanking everyone for coming out here!” he started, “I kind of didn’t expect such a turn-out…”

The silence around the campfire scared him more than he'd like to admit.

“...Anyways, as explained in Cassie O’Pia’s book Mindswarm, mental projection is the ability to summon a 2D representation of one of your archetypes to help you on certain tasks, ranging from unlocking doors to helping you recover mental energy. Some can even use it to multi-task on psychic tasks!”

“When are you going to summon the Paper Boy?”

“He was probably going to get to that, Lizzie,” Adam remarked.

“Exactly,” Raz replied.

“Show us the Paper Boy!”

“Tala, he’s getting to that!” Dion shouted

Getting the memo in full, Raz put his hand onto his temple.

“I first visualize my archetype in my mind…”

As he focused, a pencil appeared in mid-air and got to work.

“When I summon him, I usually try and think about literally sketching him out until-”

As if on cue, his archetype popped into existence

“Aww, it’s you!” he replied to Raz, “My best friend! What’s your name again?”

“He really is made of paper!”

“Tala!”

“No Dion, it’s okay!” Raz responded as his archetype waved back to Mirtala, “Though I think I want some of the others to have a chance to speak…”

“...How did you learn this again?” Norma asked.

“I was taught this by Cassie O’Pia herself!”

“What counts as an Archetype?” Adam asks.

“Oh right, forgot that part,” Raz responded, “Basically, it’s a part of your personality you present to others, whether friends or family…”

“What were you thinking about when you summoned Flat You?”

“Simple, Mirtala! I was…”

Raz went quiet as he realized mid-answer that he didn’t honestly know. As he learned the power between finding out what Ford did and helping Nona fight Maligula, he really couldn't remember what on earth he was thinking of when he summoned his archetype for the first time.

“I like your loops!” The archetype remarked before lightly tugging Mirtala's curls.

“Archie, careful!”

“It's okay Raz! He's gentle!” Mirtala chimed in, giggling. As she spoke, Dion swatted at the paper projection. Before his hand touched him, though, the archetype turned into an airplane once more, making airplane noises as he circled Dion's head before heading back to the stage.

"I'm sorry," Raz said, "he's usually a handful, but he's never been this bad…"

"It's cool," Sam responded, while Gisu tried to contain her chuckling from Archie's little stunt.

“Why do you call him Archie?” Morris asked.

“I felt like he needed a name,” Raz said, “Because…you know…calling him ‘my clone’ would be repetitive, and a little dehumanizing…”

“Aww!” Archie replied, “my clone thinks he’s real!”

“Why does he think you’re the clone?” Lizzie asked.

“...You know, I can't recall…”

“No offense, Archie, but I think she was talking to me.”

“Rats!” The paper projection exclaimed before wandering to a different point on the stage in an exaggerated huff.

“To be fair,” Raz said, trying to rerail the situation, “I don't even know either. Enough questions about my archetype, though! Do you think you understand Mental Projection?”

“All set!” Gisu responded, giving the “thumbs up” expression. No one objected.

“Good!” Raz responded, “I want to see what you think up!”

What followed was a bit of semi-quiet chatter as the teens tried to figure out what to summon as their archetype. Sam and Adam stared at the fire, Morris drummed his fingers on his lawn chair, Norma and Lizzie were talking amongst each other, Gisu paced the area while eating the kernels off her ear of corn, and Mirtala got a big bowl of gnocchi. Dion ended up being the first to dive into trying to summon his archetype, but his attempts only went halfway before he either lost focus or change his mind.

“You can do it, Dion!” Tala cheered, her mouth full of gnocchi

“Aw dangit,” Dion muttered as he once again lost focus, “Thanks, Tala, but I need my utmost attention on this.”

“Okie,” she replied before tossing more cheese-stuffed pasta bites into her mouth.

Ultimately, Gisu was the first to successfully summon her archetype, bringing forth a blocky cartoon scientist on a skateboard.

“Glorious progress!” the new archetype shouted.

“Good job, Gisu!” Raz exclaimed.

“Thanks! I think I gave her too thick an accent, though…”

“That’s okay!” he responded, “you’ll get better with practice!”

“Hey, new friend!” Raz’s archetype chimed, leaving the stage area once again to check out the new projection.

“Are you a new assistant?” the archetype asked, leaning towards Archie.

“I think! What do you need me for?”

“A billion ideas, but right now I just need to test out how fast my hoverboard can go.”

“You mean like this?” Archie responded before morphing into a paper airplane. He then zoomed all around the campfire while making plane noises.

“Yes, yes! Perfect!” Gisu’s archetype exclaimed before bolting forward on her hoverboard, chasing the airplane throughout the area.

“Wow, your archetype and mine are hitting it off really well.”

“Yeah,” Raz responded, “So what were you think of when you designed…er…”

“Professor Pragata? Well, I guess I was thinking of my inventions and wanting to finish them…”

“Oh. I see-”

“Gotchya!” Pragata chimed, taking a quick hold of Archie’s plane form before letting it glide to the ground. As he returned to his papery self, he seemed to shake his head.

“You’re crazy fast! Did you have to yank me out of the sky, though?”

“Sorry assistant! Needed to see if I truly reached you!”

Another archetype popped into existence, this time a simplistic figure of a young man in a tux on a lawn chair/thought bubble device similar to Morris’s.

“This is Radio Martinez, brought to you live by yours truly, Captain Ritmo!”

“Awesome sauce!” Mirtala exclaimed, “your paper man is so cool!”

“Glad you think so,” Morris replied, “because I am no visual artist…”

“It’s not about the looks of the archetype,” Raz responded, “it’s about what you put in it!”

“Got it!” Adam said as his archetype, a cloaked figure holding a staff with a yoyo tied to it, came into existence.

“Aw, man!” Morris exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air “I’m surrounded by artists!”

"Speak for yourself," Dion grumbled, once again discarding his progress on his archetype.

“Perhaps you’re overthinking it,” Adam’s archetype told Dion in a calm voice.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I think he means you’re focusing too much on making it just so!” Raz added, “I mean, Cassie's archetypes weren't perfect. Heck, Archie is not perfect-"

"I'm pretty darn close, though!" Archie retorted while standing on his tiptoes in an attempt to poke the staff of Adam's archetype.

"...What I'm saying is just try and think of what you need for the situation and focus on that...”

“What I need is to get this right! And not screw it up-”

“Be more specific with your hypothesis!”

Dion let out a loud, high-pitched shriek and fell flat on his back after Professor Pragata told him her advice a little too close to his face. From that scene, the group broke into laughter. Even Raz found himself holding back chuckling.

“Sweet Comedy gold!”

“You can say that again!” Morris told his archetype, “Man, I wish I brought a video camera!”

“You don’t have a video camera.”

“Well, Lizzie, I wish I bought one, then!”

“I’m not Lizzie, I’m Datura.”

“Wait, what-”

Morris quickly realized the person he was talking to was a paper version of his classmate wearing a loose sundress and shades.

“Whoa!” Raz exclaimed, “Lizzie, when did you summon your archetype?”

“Shortly before your older brother did a flawless impression of a fainting goat.”

“I did not!”

“It was perfect, Dion!”

"It wasn't perfect," Sam responded, "it needed more locked limbs and bleating…"

“Tala, Sam, not helping!”

“Guys,” Raz said, “Let’s allow Dion some time to think.”

“Aww,” Tala muttered.

“Cheer up, Tala!” Archie chimed in, walking up to Mirtala, “We could talk to the others!”

“Really?”

“Yeah! Just follow me, Tala!”

“Hey Raz!” Mirtala shouted, “Wanna join Archie and me?”

“Thanks, Tala,” Raz answered, “But I think I want to make certain the others can summon their archetypes.”

“Okay,” Mirtala says, “suit yourself…”

As he watched Mirtala and Archie play with each other, Raz felt he was being watched somehow. He looked behind him and saw a paper cutout of a woman in a 50’s styled trenchcoat and hat looking at him through a magnifying glass.

“Let me guess,” Raz said dryly, “you’re Norma’s archetype.”

“Shh!” the archetype hushed, “I’m not here.”

“Don’t answer him, Lefue!” Norma shouted, bewildered at her archetype’s statement.

“Seems your archetype needs a little work as well,” Raz said, grinning. Norma, grunting in frustration, stormed to a different section of the fireplace area. Raz turned to address Lefue but realized she had disappeared while he was talking to Norma.

“Guess I'm going to have to keep an eye on her,” Raz mumbled to himself as we walked off the stage and into the main area. He couldn’t make out specific conversations through the chatter of both people and archetypes, but he could see Mirtala talking to the others, Ritmo trying to provide commentary with Datura acting as a cohost, Norma talking to Lefue, and Gisu and Pragata trying to help Dion.

“Still having trouble?” Raz said to Dion, tilting his head.

“I really don’t know what to summon…”

“Perhaps think of someone you’d like as an assistant?” Gisu responded, “I know I made Pragata because I wanted a partner I can bounce ideas off of and help make them work.”

“We’re partners in crime and progress!” Pragata chimed.

“You said it, sister!” Archie exclaimed.

“Yeah,” Raz replied, “I’d have to say Gisu has a great approach in it!”

“So,” Dion said, “What’s Archie’s purpose?”

“...To help me open doors and get me through Maligula?”

“Wait,” Dion replied, “are you saying you can't remember what you were focusing on when you summoned Archie?”

“Well,” Gisu said, “if that night was what I think it was, it was busy…”

“My thoughts exactly!” Pragata chimed in, “sometimes we lose track of stuff on busy days!”

“You know,” Raz said, trying to dodge the conversation, “I should probably check on Sam! I don't think she has summoned her—What the?!?”

“Sam,” Ritmo shouted, pointing at the paper sheep with ridiculously buff arms attached to its back, “what the hell is that?!?”

“Guys,” Sam said in a matter-of-fact tone, “This is Bernatrice! She'll help me get the diner into shape!”

“I…” Raz muttered, “I don't think I'm going to ask further questions on Bernatrice…”

“Look at how swole her arms are!”

“Archie, what does that word even mean?”

Raz’s archetype looked at his creator with wide eyes.

“...You know, I can’t remember now…”

Razputin groaned, holding his head.

“You know what?” Dion said, standing up, “We need more marshmallows! I’m going to go and get more marshmallows…”

“But we have plenty of marshmallows!” Mirtala exclaimed, “we don’t need marshmallows-”

“I don’t think this is about marshmallows,” Lizzie responded as Dion marched out of the campfire area and through the log archway.

“So, how are you feeling today?” Archie asked Bernatrice, who only bleated in response.

“What's she saying?” Mirtala asked

“That Devon's robe needs more green in it,” Archie replied,

“...Anyways,” Adam's archetype replied, “what do we do now?”

“I could try to make an archetype!”

“Are you certain?” Raz told Mirtala, “it’s a pretty advanced psychic ability…”

“I can try!”

“She can most certainly try!” Archie responded, “go ahead, sister!”

“I’m going to make a unicorn!”

“Tala, maybe focus on something you need…”

“Well, I need a unicorn!”

At this point, Raz decided to stop talking and let her focus on “summoning” a unicorn. Best to let her have her fun, after all.

“Hey, clone, what would it be like if I were a horse?”

“I haven’t thought of it,” Raz muttered.

“Hey,” the paper projection expressed, “you okay there buddy?”

“Yeah,” Raz said, “just…I was only expecting one or two people to arrive and teaching all of them at once is a bit draining…”

“Even Bernatrice?”

“Especially her.”

A bottle hits Raz’s face, provoking a yelp from him.

“Here’s a cola!” Lizzie shouted before getting one for herself, “for your valiant efforts to herd psychic cats.”

“Thanks, Lizzie,” Raz said as he picked up the bottle.

“Yeah, thanks!” Archie added, “My clone gets tired really easily!”

“So, Professor Pragata,” Ritmo asked “what’ll happen if we touched the fire? Will we go through it?”

“Potentially!” Pragata answered, “We are psychic projections of our creators’ minds and not physical objects, after all. I haven’t tested my hypothesis, though. Wanna assist me in my tests?”

“No, but I can record them! Hey Datura!”

“Let me guess, Ritmo, you want me to help you and Pragata test if we are flammable.”

“Exactly! I’m recording for KLOB!”

“Okay,” Datura replied, “but in turn, if something happens to me, tell Morris to allow Lizzie full reign of music selection for at least an hour.”

“Hey!” Morris shouted.

“What was that about-”

“Let us see for the sake of progress!” Pragata shouted, interrupting Lizzie, “One! Two-”

“STOP!” Raz screamed at the top of his lungs “DON’T TOUCH THE FIRE!”

“Huh?” Pragata asked, tilting her head.

“You’re right in that you are psychic projections, but fire can and will hurt you!”

“Yeah, you’ll burn like twigs!” Archie added to Raz’s warnings, “trust me! That hurts a lot!”

“...Okay, experiment canceled. Back away from the fire immediately.”

“Dammit! Now, what am I going to give Morris for KLOB?”

“How about something less dangerous, Ritmo?”

“Er,” Ritmo stammered at Morris, “Sorry about that…”

“Pragata,” Gisu said, “Don’t do anything as dangerous as that ever again!”

“At least no one got caught on fire,” Lizzie said.

Suddenly, panicked bleating and screaming cut into the night as Bernatrice bounced around, lit up from the fire she poked way too close to. Everyone started scampering away from the burning paper goat, which was made difficult by Bernatrice moving surprisingly fast.

“Quick!” Norma shouted, “someone put out the fire!”

“She's moving far too fast for me to put her out,” Lizzie yelled, “at least without accidentally freezing something in the process!”

“Sam!” Raz shouted, “recall Bernatrice! Quickly!”

“Alright,” Sam said before putting her head to her temples, “I’ve been thinking of making adjustments on her anyways.” Just like that, the bleating fire just disappeared.

“Thank goodness,” Morris sighed.

“You're making adjustments to her?” Raz asked.

“Yep,” Sam responded.

And in a poof, Bernatrice was back, only with buffer arms and a bow on her head.

“There! Better.”

“She’s even prettier!” Mirtala chimed.

“She’s so swole!”

“Again, Archie, what the hell does that mean?”

“I still don’t know,” Archie told Raz, “but I’ll find a meaning soon enough!”

Raz just groaned, holding his head. He barely had time to breathe before he heard loud music playing.

“Let’s get this back on track!” Morris said, cranking up the radio. Raz could tell Queepie was DJing for KLOB again because Welcome to My Life started booming in the area. Raz usually didn’t mind the song—heck, it was very catchy—but if there was going to be music, he was hoping to show the others Psychodyssey or some other songs from Helmut. He found his hands instinctively going to his ears.

“Doo dee Doo dee Doo dee Doo!”

Raz looked over to his archetype, who was making random noises while doing a silly dance with Pragata. At one point, he waves at Raz. Raz forces himself a grin and waves back at him.

Raz could see his archetype's smile drop briefly before returning to his usual goofy grin. Archie then broke out of his dance and shifted into his airplane mode, gliding to the other side of the area while making airplane noises along the way. He then lands near Morris and walks up to his radio.

“Let's get some new beats into the mix!” Archie announced before channels on the radio.

“Hey!” Morris shouted, “What the-”

“Too chill…” Archie muttered as he continued to switch channels, “Too aggressive...Too sad...Too country...Don't know what that music style is...They’re just talking sports…”

“Archie,” Raz uttered, “I think that's enough-”

“Ooo!” Archie chimed as Milla's favorite song played on the latest channel, “I like this song!”

Archie went back to dancing and making noise…

...Up until Ritmo changed the channel back on the radio.

“Hey man,” Archie spoke, “I liked that song!”

“Fine!” Ritmo retorted, “just don't touch my radio!”

“Change it back!”

“No! KLOB is the best!”

“We need something new!”

“We need the best!”

“Let's hear the song again!” Archie shouted as he reached for the dial, only for Ritmo to slap his hand away from the radio. In response, Archie slapped his face. Before long, the two archetypes started slapping themselves with reckless abandon, yelling at each other all at once.

“...Are they fighting?” Norma asked in confusion.

“Dumbest fight I've ever seen,” Lizzie responded.

“Alright,” Devon said, walking up to the fighting archetypes, “break it up, you two.”

“He won't stop touching my radio!”

“Don't be such a dictator!”

“Archie, stop!”

“But I like that song, clone!” Archie shouted at Raz.

Raz groaned, holding his head again as the argument continued. This was going out of hand far too quickly.

“Hey, brother?”

“Yes, Tala?”

“I can't summon the unicorn.”

At this point, if Raz didn't do something, he'd explode.

“Okay, everyone!” Raz shouted, “It's smores time!”

“But Dion's not done yet!” Gisu cried out.

“Too bad!” Raz retorted, grabbing the bag of marshmallows, “Smores time!”

“Finally!” Sam said, petting Bernatrice, “I was waiting for smores all evening…”

Raz tugged on the bag, but couldn't get the bag open.

“That bag looks tough,” Mirtala remarked.

“I know,” he replied, tugging even more.

“Do you need help?” Adam asked.

“I'm fine!” Raz responded, pulling even harder, “I've got this!”

“You look like you're about to pop a vein,” Lizzie commented.

“Let me handle this!”

“Do you need help?” Norma asked.

“I said I got it!!! Just let me-”

Before he knew it, the bag ripped open, spraying marshmallows in all directions.

Everyone stopped talking as the marshmallows hit the floor. A good chunk of them landed into the fire, turning to black goo as the flame claimed them.

Raz heard a snicker. Then another brief one. He swears he could hear an archetype chuckle.

Raz’s heart sank like a rock as he felt the world go silent. He thought he heard someone ask him something, but the words felt too far away. All he could hear was his rapidly-beating heart.

Without thinking, Raz ran out of the campfire area.

As he ran, he heard the muffled voices go quieter, save for one.

“Buddy, come back!” The muffled voice wailed, but he couldn't return. He didn't want to.

Before he knew it, Raz was running through the Forgetful Forest.

**********

“Hey Buddy!” his archetype asserted, flying through the woods to try and catch up to Raz, “Hey, slow down! Wait up!”

While Raz was starting to run out of steam, he still felt the need to keep running. The gathering was a disaster. The whole thing was a disaster. He could barely see through his clouded-over eyes, but he had to keep running.

He suddenly tripped over something he didn't see, falling straight onto his face.

“There, there,” He heard Archie say as he rubbed his back, “it's okay, buddy.”

“...It's not…” Raz whimpered quietly, “It…it’s not…”

His archetype said nothing in response, and instead, he continued the back rubs. Raz once again sniffled, balling up his fists. It wasn’t fair…

“Hey, Cassie!”

Raz lifted his head and realized he was near the beehive where he first encountered Cassie as the “Green Needle Witch”...and nearby was Cassie herself, worry painted all over her face.

“Razputin!” Cassie said, rushing over to Raz’s side to help him up, “Is everything okay? Are you hurt?”

“No…” Razputin mumbled, trying to hold back tears.

“My clone tried to teach mental projection!” Archie stated in his usual chipper tone.

“How sweet! I take it the lesson didn’t go well, though…”

“Not at all!” Raz shouted, “The archetypes all had minds of their own! Some of them nearly got themselves burned! One got burned! I couldn’t keep the gathering on track, and the marshmallows for smores-”

“Raz,” Cassie interrupted, “did anyone get hurt?”

“...Only an Archetype, but she’s more or less better.”

“Ah, Xiètiānxièdì,” Cassie replied, sighing in relief, “so, what’s troubling you?”

“I only planned to teach Sam and Morris tonight. Instead, not only did all the Junior Psychonauts come, but so did Dion and Mirtala. I wanted to hang out with them, but there was just too much happening, and then I made a marshmallow bag explode…”

“Oh dear,” Cassie said, “that sounds like too many things happened at once…”

“...Cassie?”

“Yes, Raz?”

“How do you make certain an event goes as planned?”

Cassie chuckled.

“What was that?” Raz whimpered again.

“Sorry!” Cassie said, “Just…you want to hear something amusing?”

“...Yes?”

“Well, back before Lucy went back to Grulovia and…you know…I’d try to hold meetings and gatherings with the rest of the Psychic 7.”

“You did?”

“Yes! Emphasis on ‘tried’, though. Every time, I’d try to keep whatever I’m doing on track, and every time, it goes sideways in ways I didn’t even think about!”

“Every time?”

“Every single time! Helmut would get distracted over some detail, Bob would be too shy to share something, Ford and Lucy were too busy flirting, Otto would advertise his half-thought-out inventions, some meetings ended in song, Compton accidentally let a bear loose in the Heptadome, my house got flooded twice by accident, Ford thought he was a janitor after accidentally eating psitanium cupcakes, a wild hog ate one of my batches of honey from the table, and the less said about the time Ford and Otto’s brains accidentally got swapped, the better!”

“Wow, that’s bad,” Raz replied, trying to contain his chuckling over the hog incident.

“It was! If there was something I learned from all that, it’s that sometimes, when what we plan goes completely out the window, what's important is to find your footing and figure out what to do next before you fall on your face.”

“Like perfecting your fall so you don’t break any bones.”

“Or deciding not to fight a hog.”

Raz broke into laughter at Cassie’s comment.

“I like your stories, Cassie!” Archie chimed in.

“Why, thank you!” Cassie said, bowing to Archie.

“See, clone? You just needed to go with the flow! Just like I said!”

“Archie, you didn’t tell me.”

“True. I was trying to help you learn it yourself, though! I know you like to learn through doing…”

“Maybe we try and work on your communication, Archie,” Raz responded.

“Say,” Cassie said, “how about I walk you back to the gathering?”

“Hi, Lefue!” Archie chimed.

“Hey, I found them!” Lefue shouted into the distance, “They’re over here!”

“Thank goodness!” Pragata exclaimed, rolling into view with her creator not too far behind her, “I swear, this forest is like a labyrinth!”

“...I guess the gathering found me,” Raz said.

“It’s just me, Norma, and our archetypes,” Gisu stated, rolling up to Raz, “the rest of us are cleaning up the area from the marshmallow rain—Is that Cassie O’Pia?”

“It is!” She exclaimed, “I’m so glad to meet a fan!”

“Yeah…” Gisu muttered, looking to the side, “he told you everything, didn’t he?”

“Pretty much.”

“Look, Raz…I’m sorry about the snickering,” Gisu said, “It wasn’t cool at all, and even if we thought it was funny, it was clearly not funny on your end…”

“It’s fine,” Raz responded, “I probably should’ve excused myself for a moment before I got overwhelmed. I just…I really wanted to hang out with you guys…”

“Personally, I think you did pretty well with your gathering!”

“Really?” Raz asked.

“Your actual lesson may need a bit of work,” Pragata interrupted, “and you might need to get a bigger variety of food, but you did craft the entire event in less than half a day, so I must ultimately agree!”

“Thanks, Pragata,” Raz responded as Gisu pushed her hand into her face.

“Raz, are archetypes always this…”

“Out of control?” Raz replied, “I think the answer’s a solid ‘Yes’.”

“Archetypes can’t always be controlled, but they can become more cooperative!” Cassie said, “It just takes quite a bit of practice, that’s all.”

“Oh?” Gisu asked.

“You see, while the archetypes summoned for mental projection are often created to help us in certain tasks, they are derived from a facet of our own personality! It means they can be attuned to ourselves, but it means they can suffer from vices we have…”

“Like blurting out things she shouldn’t?”

“Or acting out?”

“Or worrying about what others think?”

“Archie,” Raz groaned.

“Exactly!” Cassie said, “Oftentimes, dealing with an archetype’s vices involves working on our own vices, which is still easier said than done, but way simpler than wrangling an archetype!”

Cassie then paused, thinking a moment.

“...Say, how about I help out in your lesson? Helps to have an expert on there, after all!”

“Sure thing!” Raz responded, “We even got snacks! There was going to be smores, but…you know…”

“Hmm?” Gisu hummed before putting her fingers to her temples.

“What is it?”

“Raz, your brother came back to the site! He actually brought way more marshmallows!”

“Yay!” Archie shouted, “Smores!”

“So," Raz asked, "do we head back now, or…?”

“As soon as we find Norma,” Gisu said, “we can head back to the campgrounds.”

Just then, the bushes rustled as a figure covered in twigs landed on her face with a grunt.

“I found her!” Lefue shouted.

“Oh my god,” Norma said, lifting her head, “please shut up—Is that Cassie O’Pia?!?”

“It is!” Cassie exclaimed.

**********

When Raz returned to the campfire area with the rescue party and Cassie, a fair amount of focus went immediately to the member of the Psychic 7. Dion and Mirtala, on the other hand, were more focused on Raz.

“Don't scare us like that,” Dion shouted, “especially Mirtala!”

“I wasn't scared! I was worried!” Mirtala added, hugging Raz, “I wanted to come help find you, but Norma said I'd get lost in the forest!”

“There, there, Tala,” Raz responded, hugging back, “sorry for that…”

“It’s okay!”

“Next time, Pooter, tell me if you were getting overwhelmed.”

“Thanks, Dion,” Raz said.

What followed next was a blur, between Cassie’s lessons and Raz’s interactions, all leading up to everyone surrounding the fire as they toasted marshmallows.

“Darnit,” Gisu muttered as her marshmallow caught aflame, “This is the third one in a row!”

“You’re placing the marshmallow a little too close to the flame,” Dion said as he poked his toasting fork through the marshmallow, “Usually, the heat from the fire is enough to toast it. Just keep it above the fire, and you’ll have golden, gooey marshmallows in no time!”

“Dion,” Gisu said in a playful tone, “I didn’t know you were an expert on marshmallows.”

“Well, when you lead smores night countless times for your younger siblings, you get an understanding on marshmallows…”

“Eww!” Archie said from across the way, “they’re flirting in front of my smores!”

“It’s so sweet!” Mirtala responded.

“I’m just happy Dion got a chance to talk to her,” Raz added.

“Tell me about it,” Lizzie said, “She wouldn’t stop talking about Dion since first laying eyes on him…”

“If I can hear you,” Pragata retorted, “so can they!”

“Sorry!” Mirtala shouted.

“Hey, Pooter,” Lizzie said, facing Raz, “Sorry about chuckling at you earlier. I did not mean to do that…”

“Hey,” Raz replied, “it’s water under the bridge.”

Lizzie shot a look at Morris’s direction.

“Yeah,” Morris said, “sorry about me and Ritmo.”

“Water under the bridge,” Raz repeated.

“Got it.”

“Hey Raz,” Adam spoke up, “this was a really good evening! Thanks for hosting!”

“No problem!”

“How about we do it again next Friday?” Sam asked.

“Uh, maybe we take turns hosting this?”

“Sure thing,” Sam replied, “I can show you guys tips on how to handle animals! Who knows, maybe I can bring gramps along as well…”

“Hey, can you also bring Dogen?”

“Of course!”

Bernatrice bleated, holding out a plate with graham crackers and chocolate on them,

“Thanks, girl!” she said as she squished her marshmallow into a gooey sandwich.

Raz looked around and saw his friends and their archetypes socializing amongst each other. Seeing how he had helped them figure out mental projection and their archetypes gave him a sense of pride and even kinship.

And yet a question still burned inside him.

“Aw, this gathering reminds me of the Green Needle Gulch days!” Cassie said, toasting her marshmallow over the fire, “I should try to do more gatherings with my friends now that Helmut and Lucy are back…”

“So…Cassie?”

“Yes, Raz?”

“What do you think my archetype represents?”

“Pardon?” Cassie replied, tilting her head slightly in confusion.

“I noticed the other Junior Psychonauts basically had what they wanted and their purpose figured out. I, on the other hand, can’t remember what I summoned him for, and don’t even know his purpose aside from helping me in puzzles…”

“I’d honestly be surprised if you did have something figured out!”

“What?”

“As I said before in my mental world, important challenges in our lives can cause us to create entirely new identities for ourselves. For example, Counterfeiter was created when I was abandoned by my parents to a printing press, whereas Writer was created when I decided to write Mindswarm to get the money I needed to flee my home.”

“And the Librarian was made after the fight with Maligula?”

“She was made quite a bit of time before that, but it was when she became the dominant archetype. The point is, archetypes often come from life’s experience, and the reason Archie isn’t as focused or developed as the others is that you are still figuring out yourself.”

“Oh…”

“That being said, from my interactions with you and Archie is that he's most likely based on how you were as a child—very goofy, quite impulsive, a little cheeky, but just as much a good kid as you are. He's a companion for whenever you need one, whether you're trying to reach new locations, you need to see new perspectives, or if you're overstimulated and running through the woods.”

“So he's basically comic relief?”

“Which isn’t a bad thing! Joy and laughter can be crucial when times turn dark—”

“Hey, buddy!” Archie shouted, “Your marshmallow is burning!”

Raz quickly pulled away his toasting stick to see a blackened marshmallow.

“At least I caught it before it caught on fire,” Raz said as he put the marshmallow between graham crackers and chocolate.

“Yay! It’s edible!”

Raz chuckled at his archetype’s cheers before a bite of the gooey, sweet stack.

#my fic #psychonauts #raz #razputin #razputin aquato #raz's archetype #the interns #junior psychonauts #sam #sam boole #morris #morris martinez #lizzie #lizzie natividad #norma #norma natividad #adam #adam joseph gette #gisu #gisu nerumen #mirtala #mirtala aquato #dion #dion aquato #cassie #cassie o'pia #intern archetypes #psychonauts secret santa 2021 #[I'm starting to suspect tumblr is eating my tags after a certain amount]

[stxleslyds]

I have read your thought about the Batfamily, now I really want to know your thought about the one who started it, the Batman himself. We can't ignore the fact that Bruce is abusing his children, but there's also some moments where he's being a good father to them. But some of his act doesn't make sense.

He's beating his children, then calling them his son after. He act like a mad man after Damian's death (yeah, they did Jason dirty in here), feeling sorrow and desperately wanting to ressurect him, but then neglecting him continously in the future. I didn't know much about Cass, Bruce seems to always be a good father to her. But her fans once pointed that Bruce (or DC) is too hard on her to not killing/too soft on the others, because the other batkids has killed some villains while under Batman and still got to continue putting on their costumes.

What is exactly Bruce character? How is his relationship with every one of his children?

I feel like Batman can't be in a good relationship with one of his children without destroying his relationship with the other. I always love parents and children relationship in comics, but with batfamily sometimes it just so 'fanon-y' and some are hurtful.

I stopped reading Batman book for a long time. And come back reading that wedding and city of bane arc, because I want to know how they killed Alfred. And honestly those run are terrible. The issue basically just a batcat fanservice, with the worst Batman and Catwoman characterization ever. The batkids didn't even got many appearance and treated awfully as if they are just extras, even if they all are capable and have connection with Alfred.

Hey there Anon!

My thoughts on Batman and Bruce have changed over the last few years, he wasn’t the character that introduced me to DC comics but what I got to read from him at the time seemed good. As time went by, I started to feel like the whole concept of Batman was overrated and he kinda tired me in entertainment such as movies and all that. He never truly was a character that I actually liked so by the time that I read Under the Red Hood I knew that I liked Dick and Jason better than Bruce.

Batman was interesting but I was completely indifferent about Bruce. That whole thing changed around the time that the New 52 was sort of ending, there I started to heavily dislike Bruce and then that turned into pure hate. Now, I am just tired of the guy and every time that he appears in Dick or Jason content my day is ruined.

I hate that DC has been writing Bruce as an abusive and manipulative person and father to his “kids”, he has done a lot of wrong to them in comic history but all went to shit (in current comics) when Bruce tried to manipulate Jason into reliving the day that he died and his resurrection in Batman and Robin vol2. #20 and when he beat Dick and manipulated him into becoming a spy after telling him that he had told everyone that he was dead in Nightwing vol.3 #30.

Bruce was a horrible human being in the pre-New 52 timeline too sometimes, mostly towards Dick but in a way, it felt like Dick was able time and time again to get away from him a little bit. Now none of his kids are given the opportunity to turn their backs on Bruce, they are kept in his surroundings no matter how abusive he becomes towards them.

My biggest problem with Bruce’s abusiveness is the fact that the writers never treat it like he acts in an abusive way, they never make him apologize or have an internal discussion where he realises that he was in the wrong. “Bruce is a horrible person to his sons but it doesn’t matter because he is right and he is Batman so that’s that”, that’s the message that I feel DC is selling us. Bruce never receives punishment or is called out for his behaviour, Dick was never able to tell Bruce that what he did to him was unforgivable, he never got the chance to explain to anyone that he didn’t play dead, and when he came back from Spyral he took all the shit from his “family” himself.

Sometimes DC does something even worse, they try to hide Bruce’s neglect with things that never happened like they did with the Ric thing in Dick’s case. Dick was passed around from villain to villain when he was most vulnerable and at the end of it all DC had the guts to say that Batman had been watching over Dick all the time. Like, why lie in such a blatant way? Does Bruce enjoy watching his son suffer from a far or was he too much of a coward to tell Dick that he was a shit father, got stuck in a hole and then decided to play “Cat and Bat” with Selina instead of caring for any of his children?

The situation with Damian’s death and resurrection was a whole thing that was meant to prove that Bruce loved Damian and considered him his son. But in their effort to make Bruce look like a good father to Damian they completely destroyed his relationship with his other kids and that was also the start of Bruce referring to Damian as his ONLY son. And like you said after Damian was resurrected Bruce ended up neglecting him afterwards which ultimately led Damian to run away.

His relationship with Cass and Duke is something that I cannot explore because I am not into those characters and they are involved in books that I am not interested in. So I cannot say anything about that.

With Tim it’s complicated because I feel like his relationship with him was never actually father/son it was more like mentor/mentee and that seemed to work better for them, ever since they started the whole family thing Bruce started to act a little bit too rough towards Tim and that ended with Bruce punching Tim during the “City of Bane” arc. Bruce never apologised or was shown realising his mistake, but DC made sure to explain that Bruce was going through a rough time so that’s why he did it. It was pure rubbish and I dislike it a lot.

I answered an ask a while ago about how I thought Dick and Jason could become family the way that DC treats the “Batfamily” within comics and I came up with the idea of the “Dickfamily” because I felt like DC made a big mistake the moment they revolved the Bat family around Bruce and not Dick. Bruce is a character that is known for being lonely and for being surrounded by darkness that he only manages to escape through the light of Robin (Dick Grayson because he was the first), he was always depicted as someone who is hard to work with and considers his teammates only co-workers and not friends. He is a difficult person to connect with, so why on earth did DC come up with a family surrounding that man? (I actually know the answer to that question and it is: money, DC did it to sell more comics under the Batman name but we are going to forget about that here, let me be petty).

Why would DC make it all about a man that doesn’t connect or goes out of his way to say that he “works alone” when Dick Grayson is standing right there? DC hates that they created a character like Dick because he is just better than Bruce at everything, he just is, he is better family to Alfred, Jason, Tim and Damian, he was even written as a better father to Damian than Bruce ever was!

Bruce is just not a people person or a person that forms strong bonds with people. And that makes the whole “Batfamily” concept suffer and come off as something forced that doesn’t actually work.

Tom King was one of the writers that tried to kill the concept of the “Batfamily” with Bruce and Selina becoming a couple and by continuously saying that Selina was who was the most important person in Bruce’s life and the one that made him a better person. All Tom King did with that is make fans and non-fans of the “Batfamily” feel rage. Like, I might not like the “Batfamily” but there is no way that Selina comes first to Alfred, Dick or Damian, there is just no way and if that were actually true then that’s boring.

All the writers that have pushed the “Batfamily” concept (try) do it in a way that makes it look grand and of actual essence but without putting any work on it, if you ask me the “Batfamily” (if there has to be one) should only include Bruce, Alfred (he do be dead though), Dick, Tim, Cass and Damian (I suppose Duke too, I don’t know much about him). The “Batfamily” has to be small because that way you can actually build relationships and make them matter. Having Kate, Steph, Jason and so many others involved in a concept that was made to fit around Bruce looks stupid! Bruce has had almost zero connection to Kate and Steph in the last ten years and Bruce’s “relationship” with Jason is a complete joke!

Bruce is just not the character that is meant to be surrounded by too much people, and he is not a good person towards his family so the whole ass concept should be thrown to the trash and finally let it die. But money is important and if there is something that DC will never stop doing, is milking Batman for content that can be (sometimes) pretty basic.

All in all, I think Bruce sucks and that his “kids” shouldn’t be dragged back to him ever again or at least for a long while. All of them would actually benefit from not being involved with anything relating to Batman. Dick could benefit from Bruce and other Bat-related characters staying away from him and letting him live his life in Bludhaven. And Jason? My sweet Chonky? He would be in such a better place if Bruce disappeared from his life, imagine the actually good books we would have if Jason was free to act the way he was meant to do as the Red Hood…

(We saw a little bit of that in the back up story of Detective Comics by Rosenberg, Batman is still involved but he and Jason are definitely not on the same side of the story! So excited for Task Force Z!)

I don’t know If al that I just said answers your question but I hope you have a fantastic week Anon!

#batfamily #batfam #jason tood #dick grayson #bruce wayne #damian wayne #dc comics #asksss

[savior-of-humanity]

If the covenant brutes were to invade the world of monster hunter. What elder dragon would they struggle to fight against?

Um. This got extremely long so I'm going to put this under a read-more. Regardless, this is admittedly a very interesting question and I never expected something like this to pop up in my inbox. 😳 please send me more

So, in regards to the Brutes of Halo and the Elder Dragons of Monster Hunter, there's a few facts we need to lay out.

Brutes are VERY physically strong. Like, "rip a human apart with their bare hands" strong. This is probably due to their homeworld of Doisac having twice the gravity of Earth's, which would likely mean they had to evolve dense bones and muscle mass in order to deal with said gravity pulling on their bodies 24/7. Also, they are HUGE, ranging in height from 8 feet 6 inches, to 9 feet 2 inches. This image of a Halo 3 Brute manhandling a Marine can give you a good idea of just how fucking chonky these monkeys are.

And then you have the Elder Dragons, which are in a whole other league of their own.

Honestly I'd say figuring out how a Brute, much less a pack of Brutes, would fare against any of the Elder Dragons would be difficult because uh. There's a lot of them, ranging in size from a fairly large horse (Kirin) to just straight-up fucking Godzilla (Zorah Magdaros and Dalamadur). And with each Elder Dragon, their powers tend to vary wildly as well.

It's important to note that in the world of Monster Hunter, humans are pretty strong in their own right. They're capable of lugging around giant weapons that are often bigger than themselves, and it's not just weapons that are probably relatively lightweight like longswords, light bowguns, dual blades, or insect glaives. I mean HUGE FUCKING CHONKERS; heavy bowguns, greatswords, hammers, and hunting horns in particular. And it's with these weapons that they can do shit like cut tails off monsters, or bash them in the fucking head until they fall over screaming. And even with all this brutality, Elder Dragons in particular can tank a ridiculous amount of damage from Hunters.

I'd say, in the vast majority of cases, a single Brute isn't going to be enough to take down any Elder Dragon. They simply don't have the training, knowledge, or even equipment that the average Hunter has access to. Even then, they're not going to do it with their physical strength and teeth alone; they're going to need Covenant weaponry on their side to have a chance.

Typically, Covenant weaponry utilizes plasma; plasma is a very hot substance, to the point where it merely passing by you can cause damage from the sheer heat. Brutes will utilize this alongside their own weaponry, which typically consists of big bladed weapons that shoot impaling spikes or concussive grenade-like explosives. Not to mention their most notable weapon, the Gravity Hammer, which is probably the closest thing they have to a MH Hammer.

So I'll just list some well-known Elder Dragons listing their powers, weaknesses, and notable abilities.

Kirin: Probably the weakest monster of the Elder Dragon category by comparison to the rest. Even then, it's still fairly powerful. The vast majority of it's strength lies in it's lightning powers, and in some cases it can move so fast that to the naked eye it looks like it's teleporting. However, it does have a weakness to Fire element in-game, so plasma weapons, explosives, and incendiary grenades would likely be effective. Definitely doable with 2 - 3 or more individuals.

Kushala Daora: Not only does it possess the ability of flight (as with virtually every other Elder Dragon), it can summon powerful gusts of wind that can throw around opponents almost effortlessly, and has an immunity of Fire element. That's not to say it's entirely invulnerable though -- it's skin is made of metal, so plasma will still be effective in damaging and potentially melting it. 3+ individuals minimum.

Teostra/Lunastra: Very slim chances. Their fire powers are EXTREMELY potent (mainly consisting of conjuring fire, breathing fire, and expelling explosive dust) and can cover a large area very easily. Not to mention, as fire dragons, they are naturally immune to Fire element themselves. Plasma won't be nearly as effective - it'll still be damaging, of course, but not as much compared to Kushala or Kirin in effectiveness. A large group would be required.

Chameleos: Fair chance since it doesn't have any particularly ridiculous powers like Kushala or Teostra/Lunastra, but can turn invisible with the use of mist. It also has potent poison that it can either spit as globs or spew out as mist, as well as a tongue that it utilizes to steal items. Other than that, it has no notable powers, and also has a weakness to fire, so about 3 - 4 individuals could take one.

Valstrax/Crimson Glow Valstrax: Probably unlikely, solely because of how fast it is. With Crimson Glow there's also the issue of it being able to launch dragon-element projectiles. 5+ minimum.

Nergigante: Nergigante has no powers, but compensates for that with terrible, brutal strength. A large group would be needed, and even then they'd have to worry about it trying to crush or maul them with close-range combat.

Velkhana: Maybe. While it IS vulnerable to fire element, it also has explosive ice powers and is capable of freezing individuals solid with it's ice breath. 5+ minimum.

Xeno'jiiva: Difficult, mainly due to it's dangerous laser beams, but due to it being young and inexperienced it'd be easier than if it was an adult. 4+ minimum.

Safi'jiiva: Nearly impossible. Combined with it's extremely durable hide, ability to regenerate wounds, powerful laser beams, and the ever-infamous Sapphire Star nuke, killing it would require a MASSIVE group to do lasting damage.

Alatreon: Also nearly impossible, not necessarily because of any resistances but because of it's sheer power of utilizing 5 different elements as well as the Eschaton Judgement. MIGHT be possible if he's in Ice or Dragon mode, making him vulnerable to Fire element.

Fatalis: No. Even if you had a group of 20 individuals, Fatalis has a notable resistance to fire element and possesses EXTREMELY hot fire that can melt through almost a full foot of metal.

#ooc #hi yes i put a lot of thought into this lmao

[ibelongtowrath]

Skipping The Previews - MLQC (Ling Xiao/Shaw) NSFW

Summary: You decide to go see a movie to take your mind off of everything that's going on in the world, but a sexy stranger thinks it's a good idea to take the seat right next to yours. Rating: Explicit! 18+ NSFW Relationship: Ling Xiao x Female Reader, Shaw x Female Reader, Tags: oral sex, vaginal sex, vaginal fingering, fingerfucking, shameless smut, semi-public sex Word Count: 5,707

Read on AO3

Notes: I've been wanting to write something about Shaw ever since I've seen pictures of him & finally encountered him in MLQC and whew...I know he's going to wreck my Kiro and Gavin biases! I wanted to portray him as kind of cocky, since I got that kind of vibe from him, and I hope I managed to capture that essence here. Please keep in mind that I started writing this before movie theaters were shut & things began getting very serious. I was thinking of a scenario where the reader would be upset that Shaw sits directly next to her, and a reason that the theater might still be empty for them to fuck freely in lol. Please enjoy!

It’s midday Saturday, and the movie theater is practically deserted. Carefully, you push the handicap button with your elbow, allowing the doors to open so you don’t have to physically grab them. Everyone is supposed to be doing mandated social distancing, staying six feet away from other humans at all times, until they can get the spread of the virus under control. Going to see a movie in the midst of a pandemic is not the smartest idea, but you want to take advantage of being able to go out as much as you possibly can before we’re all in lockdown. A good science-fiction action movie will take your mind off of things, even if only temporarily.

Grabbing your favorite drink from the Freestyle machine, a Cherry Coke, you walk towards the theater the movie will be playing in. On your way there, you pass the mirror by the exit of the women’s bathroom, and take a quick peek at your reflection. You’re not exactly sure why you bothered with putting so much effort into your appearance when hardly anyone will see it. Shrugging and fluffing your hair quickly in the mirror, you turn back and continue walking into the theater.

You had picked the seat all the way in the furthest corner of the theater, away from everyone else. Even if there was no social distancing rule, you would have picked it anyway. You settle down into the recliner, the leather cold as it touches your bare legs. It’s an unseasonably warm March day today, and you’re wearing shorts for the first time since September. 

Pushing the button, you recline the chair virtually as far as it will go. The theater is completely vacant, and you pray it stays that way. There’s still about 15 minutes before the previews start, and you decide to pass the time browsing your Instagram explore page, watching makeup application videos and laughing at a couple cute and funny cat videos. You’re so fixated on one particular video of a rather chonky cat, you don’t notice the handsome stranger settling into the seat directly next to yours.

You had pushed the middle armrests up to give yourself more space, and when you hear the strange crinkling sound next to you, you’re confused, because you haven’t moved. Your eyes dart to to left, and widen in shock when they meet the gaze of a gorgeous stranger’s; an amber, honey-colored hue you can’t help but stare into. 

You try to keep your expression neutral, but he’s so attractive, it’s hard to keep your composure. His lavender-grey locks of hair fall messily, but carefully at the same time, over his face, framing it perfectly, some of his fringe falling into his golden eyes. You resist the urge to touch the locks of his hair, to sweep them out of the way, so you can better admire the beautiful flecks of gold and honey in that gaze. His purple and black hoodie, darker in hue than his hair, perfectly compliments the color of his eyes. He wears a black choker around his neck, and jeans that are messily, but intentionally, ripped at the knees. Several hoop earrings adorn his ears, a cuff hugging the upper cartilage of his left ear.

Breaking off his gaze, you feel yourself blushing furiously, the heat spreading to your cheeks like a wildfire. Thank goodness you put on a bit of foundation today, so he can’t see the furious rush of red that must be stretched across your face. You notice his hands, the right one wearing a fingerless glove, clutching his phone. The other is bare, a maroon beaded necklace decorating the wrist.

“Is this seat taken, love?” he asks, his lips turning up on one side, flashing you the cockiest grin you’ve ever seen. He knows the answer, obviously trying to provoke you. 

Not wanting to give him the satisfaction, despite feeling your heart  thump, thump -ing loudly against your chest, you turn your gaze towards the screen. An ad for an interactive mobile game is playing on the projector. 

“Aw, come on, don’t be like that,” the stranger says, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

“In the case that you’ve been blissfully ignorant, which is probable,” you respond, gaze hardening on the screen before you, “we’re supposed to be staying at least six feet from other people.”

“Damn, you’ve got some bite.” He grins at you.

Running his fingers through his hair, he continues. “Yeah, I’ve seen the news. Been wanting to see this movie, though. I saw only one person had bought a ticket, so I bought the seat next to ‘em. I was hoping it would be next to a pretty girl. I was right.”

You turn to look at him, an incredulous look on your face. The compliment is flattering, but he doesn’t have to know that. You try to keep your best poker face on.

“And you thought that was a good idea?” you retort. 

It comes out with less bite than you intended, now that you’re looking at him directly. His devastatingly good looks are working their charm on you, and he picks up on it. The cocky smirk returns, a glint of something mischievous flashing in his eye. He knows you’re faltering, and he fully plans on persuading you.

“I thought it would be a good opportunity to get to know each other.” 

You can’t help but continue to stare at him, in complete awe of his audacity.

“Figured if you turned out to be some random dude, I’d just go sit in another seat. No big deal.” 

He shrugs, but that wild glint is still in his eye. In the pause that follows, he takes the time to look you over. His gaze lingers on your full lips, then drops to the swell of your breasts beneath your t-shirt. It continues downward, to the curves of your waist and hips outfitted in your favorite pair of short black shorts.

Feeling slightly self-conscious under the weight of his scrutinizing gaze, you unconsciously drop your hands into your lap and look down. You know you should get up and find another seat, or at the very least try harder to make him move. Some feeling you can’t quite place is anchoring you to your current spot. Is it...excitement? Is it arousal?  No. No way .

The previews should be starting in a few minutes, and you’re thankful for the coming distraction.

“Name’s Shaw, by the way.” His voice suddenly cuts through the silence between the advertisements on screen.

Crossing your arms, you look to your left. You decide it can’t hurt, telling him your name. 

“ Y/N ,” you tell him. “It’s nice to meet you, Shaw.”

“Likewise,  Y/N ,” Shaw replies. 

The smirk reappears, but more playful. It doesn’t quite match the look in those topaz eyes. The determination is still there, and you brace yourself for whatever he’s going to try saying next. You know, deep down, that his unrelenting perseverance, charm and good looks might just be your undoing.

Shaw reaches for something behind him. He pulls out an orange bag of Reese’s Pieces, slightly shaking it so the peanut butter and chocolate pieces clink together. He opens the bag, grabs a handful, and drops them in his mouth, his tongue sticking out to catch the pieces in case they fall. You can’t help but stare at the pink wetness and length of his tongue, wondering what it would be like to kiss him and feel it on your own…

Whoa, where did that thought come from ? you ask yourself, confused. Your face feels like an inferno yet again. As if sensing your thoughts, he audibly crunches the candy in his mouth. He swallows, and grins at you.

“Want some, pretty girl? Looking like you do,” Shaw asks, tilting the bag towards you. 

He knows you were staring, and not at the bag of candy.

“U-um...sure,” you stammer, poorly attempting to keep your composure. 

You hold out your hands, cupping them, fully expecting Shaw to pour the mini candies into your palm. Instead, that devilish glint returning to his amber eyes, he pours the yellow and orange candy pieces into his own hand. Confused, you feel your brow furrow slightly, wondering what he’s planning on doing.

Before you can react, Shaw closes the already short distance between you on the recliners. He pushes himself over and encroaches into your personal space. You feel the heat of his body next to yours, his jeans-clad leg brushing up against your bare skin. Your nerve endings feel electrified, your heart beating so hard, it feels like it could explode through your chest at any second.

Shaw leans in, as though he weren’t already close enough. His face is now mere inches from yours. You feel your eyes widen in shock. This close up, his eyes are even more mesmerizing. His skin is perfect, blemish-free, and his lips look so soft, so inviting…He lifts his gloved hand towards your face, fingers lightly brushing your jaw. Then, moving his hand up to your face, he strokes your lips gently with his thumb.

Nonplussed by his move, you feel frozen. You’re unsure of how to react. At the same time, his close proximity and the softness of his skin as he caresses your lips causes goosebumps to flare on your legs and up and down your arms. You start to feel the excitement building within. Giving in to the feeling, you can feel the arousal beginning to pool in your underwear...all caused by this handsome stranger. With a wicked grin, Shaw places his thumb between your lips, pushing against them lightly.

“Open wide, pretty girl,” he coos. 

You part your mouth at his command, your excitement unable to be contained. 

“That’s a good girl,” he murmurs. 

He takes his hand, fingers tilting your chin up. With the other hand holding the candy, he drops them in your mouth slowly, the pieces clinking together when they land on your tongue. He takes his hand away as you close your mouth and chew the candy, bursts of chocolate and peanut butter dancing on your tongue. You swallow, looking at Shaw again, just as the theater lights begin to dim. The previews are starting, and the theater is still deserted.

With that sexy stunt, you feel your chest beginning to rise and fall a little faster. You try to control your breathing. The tension between the two of you escalates with every breath. With that mischievous expression still on his face, Shaw reaches his hand out and cradles your face in his hand.

“Do you want some more, love?” asks Shaw, talking over the volume of the first preview that has begun playing on the screen. 

He runs his tongue over his teeth, almost taunting you. Fully aware of the dangerous double entendre in his words, you feel your arousal escalate, almost unbearable at this point. 

Instead of answering him, you gently grab Shaw’s hand, moving it upwards, towards your lips. 

Deciding to give him a double meaning of your own, you find yourself opening your mouth a bit wider, wrapping your tongue around his index finger. You close your lips around it. He tastes like the sweet candies. You run your tongue underneath his finger softly, then slowly pull it out of your mouth. 

You’re feeling powerful and sexy in the way Shaw is now gaping at you, completely turned on. His expression quickly changes back to his usual cocky, lopsided grin.

“What’s that you said earlier about being six feet apart?” he teases, leaning in towards your ear, so close you can feel his breath tickling the side of your neck. 

He lightly nibbles at the lobe, then moves lower. He kisses your neck, adding another gentle bite. You feel yourself shudder in delight. It’s easy to forget you’re sitting in a movie theater and someone could walk in at any second.

Shaw continues leaving red marks, from your jaw to where your t-shirt begins. He pulls the fabric down, revealing your shoulder, kissing and nibbling. You whimper, your excitement and desperation getting harder and harder to hide with every bite. You feel your nipples starting to harden against the lacey cups of your bra. Sensing your agony, Shaw lifts his head up and grasps your face softly yet firmly.

“Look at you. Getting all hot and bothered,” he coos, his silky voice causing your legs to tremble. 

His hand still holding your face, Shaw lightly turns your head towards his, then crushes his mouth against yours. It muffles your cry of shock, quickly turning it into a gasp of pleasure. You lean further into him, deepening the kiss. You bite his lower lip and cause a slight groan to escape from his mouth. You use this opportunity to meet your tongue with his, hungrily massaging them together. 

Unable to hold back any longer, the titillating stimulation having completely drenched your panties, you break off the kiss. You can feel the excess saliva shining on your chin. You turn to face Shaw, stand up. Then, you swing your leg seamlessly and straddle him, feeling the hardness of his erection between your legs. The leather chair crinkles loudly as you move. He places his hands on your hips, hooking his thumbs through the belt hoops of your tiny black shorts.

“You bad girl,” Shaw taunts, hot breath tickling your ear. “What if someone sees?”

“Then they’re going to get a show,” you quip, silencing him with your tongue.

After a minute, or who knows how long - you’ve long since stopped trying to keep track of time - he pulls away from your hungry kisses, burying his head in your neck, kissing the sensitive skin. You feel Shaw start to lift up your shirt, revealing your lacy black bra. 

His hands run slowly, deliciously up your abdomen. It starts from your hips, tracing the curves of your waist, and finally reaches the band of your bra, slipping his fingers underneath the silky fabric in one fluid motion. Goosebumps dart across your skin at his touch.

His fingers dance across the skin under the band so deliciously, you’re aching for more. When they reach the cups, he pushes them up, your breasts bouncing and spilling out with the sudden freedom. The exposure causes your heart to leap from your chest, but thankfully, no one else is around. You’ve never done something so lewd in public before.

Continuing to kiss your neck, his hands cup your breasts, caressing them gently. Shaw pinches and rolls your nipples between his thumb and index fingers, shooting pleasure straight down between your legs.

He begins his journey of bites and kisses again down your body again, moving from your neck, and down to your breasts. You feel him tonguing your nipple, lightly sucking as his tongue dances across the sensitive skin. He continues with his talented fingers on your other breast. 

"Mph!” 

You moan, hardly caring about how loud you’re being. All the self-control you tried so desperately to cling onto has been washed away by the hands of a sexy stranger.

The possibility of being caught heightens the adrenaline pumping through your veins. Your desire now akin to a fire, every touch of Shaw’s on your skin only serves to stoke it further. Each nibble, each caress, sends jolts of electricity through your body. Your nerve endings feel as though they’re out of control, each stimulation causing more sensitivity. You bite your lip with the pleasure of it.

Deciding it’s time that Shaw shows some skin of his own, your hands reach up under his loose sweatshirt. Fingers moving delicately, you trace the taut ridges of his abdominal muscles. Taking your cue, he lifts the fabric, pulling it further up. It’s giving you - and anyone who might walk into the theater, for that matter - a full view of his perfectly-sculpted body.

You run your hands up and down the length of his abdomen, drawing heavy breaths from Shaw. His chest rises and falls more rapidly. You lean forward then, lips on his neck, sucking the skin into your mouth. Then, you move over his defined clavicles and pecs, returning the love bites he had so graciously gifted you not much earlier. 

He gasps in pleasure, placing both hands on your ass, barely covered by the fabric of your tiny shorts. He squeezes it as you grind your hips against his thighs. 

Shaw’s hands move to the button of your shorts, undoing it quickly and pulling the zipper down. Your matching black panties peek out from the opening. He pulls them forward slightly, then slips two fingers in. 

He ventures down slowly into your folds, the other hand gripping your inner thigh. A lewd noise escapes from your lips, and you hear Shaw’s breath hitch at the sound of your desperation.

You’re so wet, Shaw’s fingers slide up and down with ease. They linger around your swollen clit, begging to be touched. He teases it with his fingers, sending delicious waves of pleasure up your spine. 

Suddenly, he pulls his fingers out, the sudden absence of them making you hungrier. Your desire is even more fierce. Your pussy is begging to be filled, and you can feel yourself clenching in frustration at having to wait.

Holding up his hand, you see the evidence of your arousal that coats his middle and ring fingers, slick and shiny in the light of the screen behind you.

“Naughty, naughty girl. Getting so turned on in a place like this.” 

He sounds so proud, so full of himself. You lean back slightly, placing some distance between your bodies. Looking down at the sizable bulge in his jeans, seeing that he’s quite obviously just as turned on as you are, you feel your eyebrows raise at him.

“I could say the same for you,” you purr, your voice as smooth as velvet.

Shaw looks at you then, drinking in the sight of you. Lips pink and swollen, your eyes, half-closed and shiny, glazed over with lust, your hair messily falling around your shoulders. T-shirt and bra pushed up, bare breasts bouncing with every movement. His eyes fall on the delicious pinkish-red trail of love bites leading from your neck to your breasts...all in this very public setting. 

He draws a sharp breath in, his cock straining harder against the constricting fabric of his jeans. Excitement is etched all over his skin. He knows he should stop, but he doesn’t want to, and he’s hoping you don’t want to either.

“What are you going to do about it?” Shaw tilts his head up at you, and you recognize the challenge in his words.

“You’ll see.”

Half of your brain screams at you to stop, to end this now before it goes too far. The other half eggs you on, telling you that you only live once. The metaphorical angel and devil sit on your shoulders, each giving you a reason to listen to them. Grinning, you decide to turn towards the devil, abandoning all common sense. The thrill and the pleasure are overloading your senses. All rationale and reasoning are being completely thrown out the window.

You find your hands on the button of Shaw’s jeans, unbuttoning them, and pulling the zipper down slowly. You hook your fingers into the waistband of his boxers, pulling them down. After a few seconds, his fully-erect cock springs out. You widen your eyes in surprise at his length and girth. You’re a bit nervous about your ability to fit him, but you never back down from a challenge.

You grasp a hand around his erection, jerking him up and down a few times. You tease your thumb around the head, drawing out ragged breaths from Shaw. You remove your hand from his cock and, without a second thought, you stand up. Shaw watches you in anticipation. 

The rush is so satisfying, you never want it to end. You’re in complete shock at yourself for feeling like this. What happened to the careful, cautious girl whose motto was “better safe than sorry?”

She’s dead and gone now .

Feeling the adrenaline blazing a trail through your veins, you sink slowly to your knees in front of Shaw’s seat, your eyes never leaving him. His eyes widen, realizing what you’re about to do, and he scoots forward to the edge of the seat.

“You’re crazy!” laughs Shaw, teasing but obviously delighted. “Crazy, crazy girl.” 

You grin, accepting it as a compliment. The adrenaline rush gains more and more momentum. You can feel your pussy throbbing. Your black lacy underwear is completely soaked with the anticipation.

You lean in, grasping his length in your hand, jerking it up and down in slow, tantalizing motions. His pre-cum leaks out, and you dip your tongue into his slit, tasting and lapping up the salty fluid. Removing your hand from his shaft, you use your thumb to caress his head. You run your tongue over the length of his dick, back and forth, as though you’re tasting the most delicious ice cream you’ve ever tasted. 

Shaw looks down at you then: reddened lips, swollen and moist with spit. He inhales sharply, leaning back against the chair as he does so.

Sufficiently lubricated with your saliva, you breathe deep. You open your mouth, accepting his generously-sized dick into it. You’re swallowing around it, your cheeks hollowing with the effort. You’ve never deepthroated any guy as big as him before, and you feel your throat rebelling in protest at the new challenge. You manage to quell the gag and relax your throat muscles. 

His dick fully engulfed in the wet heat of your mouth and throat, you hear Shaw let out a ragged, breathy moan: 

“Fuck, oh, fuck…”

He leans forward again, threading his fingers through your hair. The sudden action forces his cock a little further down your throat than you’d intended. This time, you can’t control the small gag that escapes you. Tears form in your eyes; one manages to escape, and falls down your face. Thankfully, Shaw doesn’t notice, and you continue your movement: back, and forth, swirling your tongue up and down his shaft as you move to the rhythm of a song nobody else can hear. 

Having lost track of time, you continue. The loud music and explosions of a preview of some new action movie is playing behind you. You feel his dick twitch, knowing he’s close.

“F-Fuck, you’re gonna make me cum, pretty girl…” Shaw groans, stroking your hair.

A few seconds later, Shaw finally releases, shooting hot white ropes down your throat. You move your head back, slowly pulling him out of your mouth. You grasp his length once again and slowly move your hand up and down. More of his cum leaks out onto your lips, dribbling onto your chin. He looks down at you then, riding out the final throes of his orgasm as you lick your lips with a grin. You catch the slightly bitter white fluid on your tongue and make a big show of swallowing.

Shaw sits back against the cool leather of the recliner, panting, trying to control his breathing. He grins, the corner of his lip turned up, feeling amused. He can’t believe you had the balls - no pun intended - to suck him off in the movie theater. He thought he would be lucky if he got your phone number, especially considering how cold you were to him at the beginning. Pulling his underwear and jeans back up, he stands up suddenly. He looks at you, still on your knees. 

“Stand up,” he tells you, and you follow his command, getting up slowly. You feel your legs shake slightly.

“Sit.”

You sit, in the same space Shaw had been sitting just seconds ago, the chair still warm from his body heat. Without warning, Shaw is now on his knees. Just as quickly, he starts pulling down your shorts and lacy black panties over your legs and feet, discarding them on the floor. You gasp in shock. That cocky upturned smirk returning for the umpteenth time, Shaw revels in your surprise.

“Just returning the favor, yeah?”

Before you can react, he forces your knees apart, spreading your legs. You whimper, slightly ashamed that you’re in this very compromised position. The hunger grows in Shaw’s steady amber gaze. Your pussy is now on full display, the fleshy pink skin coated in the clear fluid evidence of your arousal. 

Shaw begins by hooking his arms around the bottoms of your thighs. He slowly kisses the sensitive skin of your inner thigh, moving closer and closer to where you want him to be most. Your desire feels like agony. It’s like a thirst dying to be quenched, a growling hunger aching to be quelled. After what feels like forever, you feel his tongue flicking at your clit. The sensation sends jolts of pleasure and electricity up through your abdomen and into your chest. 

“Shaw!” you hear yourself crying out his name, overtaken by the combination of pleasure and adrenaline. The fire spreads through your body like a wildfire.

Unhooking an arm from around your thigh, Shaw inserts two fingers into your pussy. They fuck you while his talented tongue works its magic on your clit, alternating between sucking and massaging. His fingers curl up as he plunges them in and out of you, massaging your g-spot. 

Shaw suddenly pulls away from you then, his voice husky. 

“Oh, baby girl, you’re going to be making a mess of that seat.”

He continues his song and dance of getting you off. The combination of his fingers and tongue is almost too much to bear, and you begin to feel the heat between your legs start to rise uncontrollably. You know you’re close, and can feel the pressure building. 

Within seconds, you feel the orgasm reach its crescendo, trails of fire burning from your hips up into your abdomen. Your heart pounds as you dissolve into the pleasure. At the same time, as though in sync, a loud gun “BANG!” sounds off, playing from the preview on the large screen. 

You arch your back, riding it out, savoring the delicious electricity pulsing through your most sensitive nerve endings. There’s a sudden gushing feeling between your legs. Realizing you just squirted for the first time, you clap your hand over your mouth in embarrassment and excitement. The fluid leaks down your leg, pooling on the underside of your thighs.

“You didn’t tell me you were a squirter,” Shaw quips, licking his lips. They’re shiny, coated in your juices. He flashes that gorgeous smile at you.

Figuring that you also weren’t aware based on your lack of response, Shaw stands up, silhouetted by the flashing lights of the screen at the front of the room.

“Think I sufficiently returned the favor, right, love?” he asks, leaning over you. 

Your tongues meet yet again, tasting each other on your lips. As he presses into you further, you notice he’s still hard. You glide your hand over the noticeable bulge, teasing him. He inhales sharply and groans into your mouth, then pulls away.

“Guess you’ve still got another round in you,” you hear yourself say. You immediately feel your face flush, shocking even yourself with your sudden boldness.

“Guess so,” Shaw replies, moving to sit down in the set of recliners to your left. He unbuttons his jeans and pulls them down, his fully-erect cock springing out once again.

“You made a mess of that one, so why don’t we try another seat, yeah?” 

He winks at you, then lifts his hoodie once again to reveal his perfectly sculpted abs. He leans back, his dick resting up against them, enticing you over. You glance around the theater, still somehow empty. You then look back at Shaw, who sits patiently, waiting for your reaction.

The devil that’s still sitting on your shoulder whispers into your ear:  Do it. You’ve already gone this far, what’s a little further ?

You feel a grin forming on your lips as you walk over to Shaw. Pressing against him, you straddle his thighs. You tease his cock with your pussy, your wetness coating him. His breath hitches in anticipation as you hover over him. You slowly lower yourself onto his cock, the delicious feeling of his girth filling you up overcoming all your senses. He stretches your walls and you gasp, never having felt this full before.

At the sound of his moans, the feeling of a dark, sinful, rush flows through your veins. Adrenaline, raw lust and desire are controlling all of your actions. You roll your hips, and he groans louder, placing his hands on them as the dialogue behind you drowns out the sounds of your sins. You bounce up and down, moving to the tempo of a lullaby no one else can hear. He grabs your breasts as you ride him, drawing out a whimper of pleasure.

Shaw thrusts into you, matching your cadence. You lean into him, the two of you pressed together as you fuck without inhibition. The feeling of his cock between your walls is heavenly, and you throw your head back in ecstasy, hair hanging loosely down your back. 

“Hey,” you hear Shaw whisper suddenly, “why don’t we switch it up?” 

The words are breathy, as though it’s hard for him to speak and fuck at the same time.

“What...do you mean?” you answer, confused, though you’re finding it equally as hard to speak coherently.

“Stand up.”

Lifting yourself off of him, you do as he says. You’re in the back of the theater, and if anyone came in just then, they would see your naked behind, save for your t-shirt and bra pushed up as far as possible. 

Shaw remains seated for a few seconds longer. He reaches out behind you and squeezes your supple ass. Your naked, curvy silhouette is framed by the bright lights of the newest science-fiction action movie trailer, and he has never seen anything so sexy before.

Finally, he stands. You watch his movements carefully, your curiosity heightening. Suddenly, he moves behind you, gently pushing his knee between your legs.

“Bend over,” he instructs. 

You obey.

It doesn’t take long to realize what position he wants you in, and his hands reach out to grab your hips as you’re bent over the seat, facing the back of the recliner. You oblige him further by arching your back, deepening the angle for his maximum pleasure.

An initial wave of the fear and paranoia of being caught rolls over you, but you feel it ebb as Shaw begins slamming into you yet again, returning right back to the same rhythm where you had left off in your sinful lullaby. All of your attention is focused on him. His hands rest on your hips, guiding your movement as you push back into him. 

He’s so big, you can feel him filling you all the way. The heightened angle is allowing his cock to go so far, up to where he can reach no further, but thankfully it doesn’t hurt. Instead, you revel in the feeling. You’ve never been fucked by a guy who could slam all the way into you like Shaw does.

His hands grab your ass as you bounce up and down methodically. He moves them back to your hips, guiding them up and down as he thrusts harder and harder into you.

His dick slams into your g-spot repeatedly, and you feel yourself on the verge of shattering once more. Not even seconds later, you hit your climax. The fire pools low in your abdomen. The buildup starts slow as the fire blazes to life, then transforms into a pleasurable inferno, shooting all the way up into your chest.

“Mph!” 

A cry of ecstasy tears from your throat. Riding out the final throes of your orgasm, your pussy walls clench tighter around his dick, causing him to gasp. The sudden tightening, a torturous yet delicious feeling, becomes nearly too much for him to handle, threatening to make him come undone sooner rather than later.

“Shit, I’m gonna…” Shaw rasps, barely finishing his sentence as he, too, cums, spilling into you.

Breathless and panting, you pull yourself off of him and stand up, your legs shaking so much you have to hold on to the seat in front of you to prevent yourself from tumbling onto the floor. Quickly, you reach down and pull on your underwear and shorts, a little bit relieved to be covered up again. Shaw is also breathing hard. He’s grinning at you as he buttons his jeans, then glancing to the seats to your left. There’s a few wet spots on the seat - the glaring evidence of your sin.

“You certainly made a mess, huh, Y/N?” he teases, leaning towards you, amber gaze burning into yours. “And not just the seats.”

Blushing furiously at the double meaning, you look towards the aisle.

“I-I’ll go get some paper towels,” you stammer, suddenly feeling the need for fresh air.

Running to the bathroom to clean yourself up, you return a few minutes later, several paper towels in hand. You wipe down the seat, hands shaking all the while. When you’re done, you ball up the towels in your hand, moving to throw them out. As you turn to leave, Shaw pulls on your arm.

“Hey, wait. The movie’s starting,” he whispers, holding you in his gaze. You turn towards the screen, and, just as Shaw said, the title screen of the movie flashes across. Something else catches your attention, and you look down to find another couple walking into the theater, whispering loudly about how they made it just in time.

You look back over at Shaw, and he flashes you that gorgeous smile, winking at you as you sink down into the seat next to him. He wraps an arm around you and you start suddenly, but sink into him. His touch is surprisingly comfortable.

“That’s definitely the best way to skip the previews,” he laughs, and you feel yourself smile, the devil on your shoulder winking at you and finally disappearing.

#mr love queen's choice #mr love dream date #ling xiao #shaw #mlqc smut #mlqc #mlqc fanfic #smut #shameless smut #mlqc ling xiao #mlqc shaw #mr love #mr love ling xiao #mr love shaw #fanfiction

[we-always-hit-our-ass]

First Date HCs With David Webster

warnings: meh some cursing but nothing major, it’s also very long I’m sorry- but the rest is just fluff, so eeee I hope you all like them! <333

words: 1.6k (ajsajhk i got carried away on these headcanons, i couldn’t help myself)

Taglist: @deldontplay, @thatsonefishyboi,@noneofurbusinez, @meteora-fc, @gutsandgloryhere​, @hihosilvers, @rayleighshughes, @floydtab, @wexhappyxfew, @sherlollydramoine, @meganthesunflower, @3milesup​, @jamie506101​, @sunflowerchuck​, @softlieb​, @k-websters​, @punkgeekchic​, @speirs-crazy-ass​, @hellitwasyoufirstsergeant​, @stressedinadress​

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First Date Headcanons with David Webster

So you see, of course our favorite Harvard boy will take you to the fucking aquarium (Cliche and obvious? Yes. But like where else, I mean seriously??)

When you first got together the first thing he promised you was an aquarium date, and well looky here, he fulfilled that promise.

Ok, so y’all pull up to the building and you can see waves of literal euphoria coming out of him. He’s just so adorable and he has a little bit of pep in his step when walking towards the entrance. 

And then every time he walks, his poofy brown hair bounces up and down and the way the suns hits it is *chefs kiss*-

Even before you get to the entrance, your boyfriend is gushing about marine animals. They were short descriptions of a multitude of animals but they were so detailed and captivating, you couldn’t help but listen.

However, his voice was a bit distracting at times and you could find yourself zoning out while he talked. 

A look of awe is plastered on your hand and your hold on his hand tightens ever so slightly.

It’s safe to say that you learned more about ocean animals in those brief moments than you ever could from your years in school.

Y’all bust in the aquarium like the iconic couple you two are (I’m so proud of you) and boy oh boy is David cute as hell.

Here he is-- a grown ass man who went to Harvard and literally served in WW2-- looking like a child discovering a shiny rock. You love it-

David is indecisive as hell and he had no idea where to go. He turns over to look at you with those beautiful eyes of his and you can’t help but smile.

You two pull up those maps of the building and you two plan out the rest of your date. Your fingers trail over the paper, trying to figure out where to go first.

You two make up this intricate schedule and you knowingly look at each other when your eyes find where the shark exhibit was.

But at the beginning of your date Web held your hand as you two viewed various wildlife vibin in the water behind the glass.

You were in heaven when you saw how the water played so beautifully on the your boyfriend’s face. 

David was oblivious to how you stared at him in awe and you were oblivious to whenever he did the same to you.

You named a crab after Johnny and a particularly cute clownfish was named after Babe. You two had a heated discussion on who Winters was. 

(Y’all never settled on anything. Web thought he’d be a red snapper. You personally think he’d either be a blue marlin or a swordfish.)

He called you his angelfish and you hit him on the arm for being so cheesy. After that he said that you were a flame angelfish instead and you could only playfully roll your eyes at him.

Get prepared for literally a shit ton of fish trivia this boy will never shut up and he just wants to gush about it to you, it’s very wholesome and sweet actually.

He knows a lot because he either has a whole 100000 page book about the sea printed on his brain or something or because he has the literal ocean in his eyes.

Look I can’t tell at this point-

The two of you were going to every single exhibit this aquarium had to offer and there was no stopping you.

Sadly that intricate schedule is unceremoniously yeeted out the window because when you head over to the next place you're stopping at you two see something else you like and head there instead.

“(Y/N)! I thought we were seeing the penguins next-”

“But Web, the seals! Look at the seal exhibit!”

You’re gripping his arm and looking at him with your stunning face, how could he say no to you? 

So he lets an exaggerated sigh and nods his head as he tries to contain his grin.

You two went over to the seal exhibit instead kasjhd- Y’all still got to see the penguins, it’s all ight.

While gawking at the beautiful fish species you saw, Web seemed to know a heaping mount about a lotta of em. The facts he didn’t tell you earlier he says now and you’re just like “look at my smart Harvard boy go-”

The amount of times you wanted to just make a scrapbook that is dedicated to this day alone is nearly impossible to keep track of. The both of you wanted to cherish this aquarium date for all eternity.

Cause literally there’s this one moment where you’re looking over at tropical fish and Web was reading the description. Oh what would happen next-

As you’re admiring the way the small fishes swam gracefully Web legit goes on a rant on how they got some information on the Tiger Barb wrong.

This adorable idiot I- I can’t even at this point.

But Web holds you in his arms as he buries his face in your hair while looking at fish send tweet. 

He also wraps his arms around your waist and he rests his head on top of yours. He makes comments about some of the fish and you just sink into his embrace.

Also one thing you did keep from your schedule after not following it was visiting the petting pool after you two ate lunch.

When I say that you two nyoomed over to the petting pool area I mean y’all nyoomed-- Like full Speirs mode on-- because Jesus Christ this is an aquarium and David will obviously take you to the petting pool.

You two arrived there and my Lord you swore that David was holding back a squeal. The two of you immediately rolled up your sleeves and went over to dip your hands to touch the animals in the pool.

The look you gave Web when you touched a cownose ray-- it was precious. 

You also couldn’t hold your excitement as a few more smaller rays glided under the pads of your fingertips.

Then there were the horseshoe crabs and yknow those tiny fish that like swarm your hand and tickle you, yeah those too.

Y’all also chill it out and get to wash the jellyfish. The way the room was dark gave it a whole nother vibe, my loves. 

Like in  that jellyfish room, you two will most definitely just hold each other while gazing at the glass.

Bro, in the dim room, he’ll just pull you close and place a chaste kiss on your forehead and lips.

The bioluminescence of the jellyfish illuminates Webster’s face, making his features appear more sharp. Simping time commence, you two are a fine af couple.

Now time for the real kicker- It’s shark time

After dragging your ass to almost all of the other exhibits in the aquarium, Webster saved the shark exhibits near the end of the date.

Ohoho, was this boy eUPHORIC-

David is gripping your hand tightly and he’s constantly sending you smiles as you two walk closer to the entrance of the shark exhibit.

This is where Webster ascends out of his body, this is the second time he has (first time was when he met you and started dating). 

You share his happiness and the utter vibes comin off from your boyfriend makes you so soft and full of glee.

Yknow his constant face when his eyes are focused on something and his mouth is just slightly parted? Well that is his face most of the time during your time there.

M o r e   f a c t s.

Webster did write a wholeass book about them, what did you expect?

The utter passion and fascination in his voice really stands out whenever he talks about these beautiful babies- 

Like sure, David sounds happy when he talks about other sea animals, but with sharks? Whole nother level. 

It’s one of his biggest quirks and my goodness do you just stand there taking in all his facts as he goes on a tangent about different types of shark species.

The light in his eyes as they trail over as they trail over a sand shark swimming by. He’ll also just stare at a leopard shark while smiling because he loves them.

After leaving the shark exhibit after spending 1 hour in there with your boyfriend, you two decide to go home- But first, y’all buying some things from the giftshop. 

Webster will spoil you and will buy you anything you want in the aquarium gift shop.

Wallets beware, you’d also do the same for him.

There was this jellyfish theme hat you saw and you made David try it on- He looked so fucking stupid but like a cute kinda stupid.

You regret not buying it when you had the chance-

However- You two got shark plushies together. You got a tiger shark plushy and he gots a hammerhead. 

You two absolutely love them and you could’ve sworn you could’ve just burst from happiness when he showed you the tiger shark plush he got for you.

You two also bought those chonky seal plushies because I mean... I mEAN- Just look at em, they’re stunning of course you and Web had to get em.

With a day well spent with your boyfriend you just wanted nothing more but to lay with David on your bed as you run your fingers through your hair.

So you two leave the aquarium building smiling and laughing. Webster leans in a gives you another soft kiss on your lips and you let out a giggle. 

The two of you are noticeably happier, and you two head back to the car. The date ends with your hand in his and your four new plushies in tow.

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a/n: it’s been so long since I posted a fic or writing of any kind. unfortunately, i’ll have to put a hold on my pt 2 for the roe fic i made and im procrastinating by writing hcs kasjadjk. i decided to make these for some of the lovely people in my discord server. i hope y’all enjoyed these hcs with web!

i love you all very much, stay safe and i send yall another round of my good vibes 😩💕💕

#band of brothers #band of brothers x reader #david webster x reader #david webster #band of brothers headcanons #hbo war #hbo war x reader #david webster headcanons

[boneswriteswords]

How do you think was the childhood in the sewers four our beloved turtles? (maybe a short head canon? please and thank you^^)

AN: Hi! I am a hundred years late but what else is new? Thank you for sending in an ask. I went with the head canon route because lazy. This also took me forever and they didn’t turn out to be fun head canons and I am sorry about it. I can’t make nice things.

Childhood Headcanons

Michelangelo:

-  Mikey was very decisive and sure of himself as a kid, even when he was feeling insecure. He was very much like Othello – he was sure that he was feeling unsure and secure in that he knew he was feeling insecure. He had no issues expressing how he felt, able to search inside himself to put a name to the chemicals firing off inside his brain. He was good with making choices – even if the choices themselves were very bad. From a young age, he made the choice to see and search out for the good. He lived in darkness and dampness but he would not allow it to control him.

- He wondered what it was like to have a mother. He loved his dad but it wasn’t the same. He craved a feminine touch – a gentle hand with a soft voice and a soft place to lay his head when everything got loud inside his skull. He’d never tell his dad – would rather sew his own mouth shut before he ever said anything that could hint that his dad wasn’t enough for him – but he couldn’t help staring at mothers and their children through the openings to the sewer and wondering what a mother’s love felt like.

- He got really into art when he was about 10. He found a couple cans of spray paint that some dumb kids had left behind after being caught vandalizing and he sat at a dead-end of the sewer, testing what he could do with them. He had a limited palate but he managed to create really cool art pieces. Whenever he needed a mental break, he’d take his bag of cans and skateboard and go find an isolated area where he can create. As he got older, he uses the murals as a way to find his way home.

Donatello:

- Donnie struggled in his really early years and was incredibly withdrawn, even from Splinter. He was born a genius, able to make connections that were beyond his age very early on and it came with the pressures of being a ‘gifted child.’ His body often felt heavy and ducking into his shell to hide when it got too much for him to move was common. He spent a year or two resenting his brothers – the teenage angst came early for this boi – because they weren’t making the same connections that he was and he had issues reconciling that he could see things they couldn’t, not yet.

- People think Mikey is the biggest video game nerd but they would be wrong. That title belongs to Donnie. The moment he got his hands on a game station, it was over. He revamped it, acquired some games for it, and played it for daayyyys without interruption. He was fascinated by the technology and one of his favorite things to do to this day is beating games and then taking them back to his lab and reprogramming them with more play, more side quests, more characters, more scenes, just…more. It is one of the ways to test and improve his skills without killing himself with deadlines.

- Donatello was obsessed with fire. He isn’t sure when his search for warmth became more but he remembers the freezing temperatures in the sewers, especially during winter time, and the way his blood slugged through his veins. He created fire in an attempt to warm up their den one evening and, while he did is safely, he felt a compulsion to watch and to touch, feel the burning break through his skin to light up his bones. He didn’t and he made sure Mikey didn’t accidentally flail into the fire but, even as an adult, he can’t help but feel it call to him. 

Raphael:

-  Raph was the kid that fluctuated weight as he grew. One month, he’d be short and chonky and the next he’d be an inch taller and thin. It made him really self-conscious because his brothers grew into their bodies a lot more gracefully than he did, going through a small awkward phase before settling with the ease of a butterfly coming out of a cocoon. His body angered him, especially when it made him lethargic, because he ate the same amount and trained the same– if not more – than his brothers. It wasn’t until they hit their midteens when he got big. His shoulders expanded. He got even taller. Muscle replaced the baby fat. He lost the weird second chin flap thing that was along his jaw. He full on Neville Longbottom-ed in the span of  six months and he was finally able to feel comfortable in his skin….even though he still doesn’t get how big he actually got at times and has fallen over many times.

- He sang in the shower. A lot. Once his voice stopped cracking and the deep timber set in, he liked murmuring song lyrics while he scrubbed himself down. A lot of the songs were very uncharacteristic for him - love songs and soft melodies meant for lovers to sway to on the dance floor together. 

- Raph was scared a lot of the time. Just because he lived in the shadows doesn’t mean he wasn’t scared of what was in there with him. He flinched every time he caught movement he couldn’t identify. As he grew, he realized that facing the dark was the only way he could really know what was there. There were times where he went too far, moving to fast, and he had to scream for his dad to come find him between panicky, stuttering sobs.  

Leonardo:

- He was a curious boy. As a result, he was the one who lost his innocence first. Before he felt the pressures of leadership and being the eldest on his shoulders, he liked to wander the sewers, going a little farther every night. Closer to the lights and the sounds he heard some nights that filled his mind with vastness. He discovered people before his brothers. He watched as a young woman was dragged into an alley by her boyfriend and beaten to death, the blood pooling under her body drowning the daydreams he kept close to his chest. He walked back to the lair changed, the urge to protect blossoming under his skin and spreading across his chest like armor.

- Leo loves to read and it was something him and Donnie bonded over as they grew up. A lot of the books they got were busted with missing pages and dented spines and scribbled to hell so they filled in the missing plots with their own, battling knights and overthrowing kings (Donnie was adamant that the kings were bad because of taxes) and brewing healing potions. After a while, Donnie became immersed in his science and Leo drifted into training but some of Leo’s favorite memories are when he and his brother were rogues in a forest surrounded by nymphs napping in the sun.

- He spent years learning control because he didn’t have much of it as a kid. Splinter focused on teaching him meditation the most out of his children because he required the most reigning in. Raph lashed out in large bursts and fizzled, Donnie snapped harshly and retreated to think, and Mikey cried it out but Leo was a different story. He couldn’t stop when he started and he couldn’t let it go. He fixated in unhealthy ways and Splinter had to find a way to stop it before he got out of hand. 

~~~

End

~~~

#tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #headcanons #michelangelo #raphael #leonardo #donatello #My writing #imagine #tmnt headcanons

[hedwigstalons]

High Expectations - Ch8

First attempt at the chonky one - have a young Virgil.  He only appears over the phone in this chapter but I’ve already drawn Jeff and Gordon so I’ve attempted Virgil this time.

Thanks to @willow-salix​ for her edits and pointers along the way.

Earlier parts: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven

AO3 chapter link

Chapter Eight

Gordon couldn’t even remember what the catalyst for the tongue-lashing had been this time, there were so many lately and they all seemed to blur together in the end.  It felt like continuous needling; every time they talked it was just another chance for Jeff to nag at him to choose a suitable career route, just as long as it fitted his view of what he considered suitable and that definitely didn't include professional athlete.  The latest lecture had come with an ultimatum; he could either get a job, start a Tracy Industries internship or join a college programme in the spring intake.   If he didn’t then his allowance would be cut off.  

It didn’t feel like much of a choice.  All he really wanted to do was swim but for that he needed money.  Any bridges between himself and potential sponsors had been burned when he didn’t take up their offers straight after the Olympics; opportunities were few and far between and without some sort of financial backing Gordon knew he wouldn’t have the means to survive for long.  Without his allowance to bankroll his continued training he may as well hang up his towel permanently.

He definitely couldn't stand the thought of starting an internship where he'd be forever under the watchful eye of his father, living in the same house was bad enough at the moment.  He knew he didn't have the same business acumen as his father or the book smarts of his older brothers; he'd never be able to hold his own within the business and he could already imagine the whispers that would follow him around the office, judging him as just another rich son living off his family name who didn't deserve the job.  He knew himself better than that.  Being locked up in an office for upwards of 10 hours a day with no chance to work off his excess of physical energy with exercise, he'd explode. Something would snap, probably his sanity.

As for continuing down the education route Virgil had been a good sounding board about further studies but college still didn’t feel like the right place for him.  If worst came to the worst he would find a course somewhere, maybe studying ecology or marine biology wouldn't be so bad.  The idea of moving out and setting up in his own little apartment like Virgil and John had and having the freedom to live outside of his father’s shadow was certainly appealing.  He knew though that when it came to school he would always be compared to his siblings, his father always managed to shoehorn in a remark about just how well his brothers were doing.  Although conversation was perhaps a generous description of the one-sided lectures that seemed to occur whenever Gordon and Jeff were in the same room together for any length of time.  No, school would be a last resort rather than his first choice.

Yet again it was his father’s way or the highway.

The grip on his temper wavered as he left the study and by the time he reached the sanctuary of his bedroom his frustration had risen up enough for the door to be closed behind him with a slam.  It didn’t make him feel any better.  Once again he had tried to talk to his Dad, to explore the option of maybe taking even just one year out to focus on his sport; plenty of people took a gap year after all.  Once again it had turned into another lecture about finding something useful to do with his life.  It had taken all his iron willed control, learned the hard way from years of harsh words and tough love from his coaches, not to bite back.  

Before he had even registered what he was doing the application pack for WASP was out of its hiding place at the back of a drawer and in his hand.  He smoothed out the worst of the creases and stared at the words; World Aquanaut Security Patrol.  He hadn’t given it much thought since his visit to Denver but now the idea was filling his brain with a buzzing reminiscent of the insect in the emblem.  The forms signified an opportunity to live an independent life away from the control of his father and out of the shadows of his brothers. 

Scanning over the questions on the forms he spotted one major problem; you couldn’t join the submarine service as a minor and he wouldn’t turn 18 until February, however, you could attend junior ranks selection aged 17 as long as you had parental permission.  Permission he was unwilling to seek.  He had no reason to suppose that his father would refuse, after all the military was an accepted path for a Tracy, but his judgement was clouded by anger and resentment.  One trait he shared with his father was independence, if he could complete something without relying on others he would.  He had resolved to choose his own way and he was not willing to ask his father for anything, not even a signature.

Gordon took a steadying breath, scrawled ‘J. Tracy’ onto the bottom line, and stuffed the forms into an envelope.

There was no going back now, he'd done it, he'd made a decision for himself, and it felt amazing.   This could be the start of the rest of his life.  A life away from the father that would never, or perhaps could never understand him.  Endless possibilities stretched away before him and Gordon found himself glowing inside, fuelled by his secret and the opportunities it offered.

xoxoxox  

Within a few days he had a response in his hand.  The pack in the mailbox was reassuringly thick but he still opened it with some trepidation, his breath held; if it was outside the realm of swimming he always found himself braced for disappointment.  He needn't have worried though, his aptitude test results and high school certificates had been more than sufficient to get him over the first hurdle.  His initial application had been accepted and the pack contained details of a selection course he was expected to attend.  

Despite the initial anger behind his application having burned out Gordon was not one to back down on a challenge.  He held the proof right there in his hands, he was wanted; someone had seen his potential and it felt great.  He could just imagine the look on his father’s face when he announced that he no longer needed his help and was heading off to pilot submarines instead.  Of course he wouldn’t dare go so far as to actually tell his father exactly where he could stick that TI internship but it was fun to imagine. 

The next stage in the journey though wouldn’t be so fun.  The selection course was happening in the far north of the state and took place over several days.  It wasn’t something he could just pop out to while Jeff was at work.  He wasn’t beyond a bit of deception by omission but he had never been comfortable with outright lying, honesty was yet another Tracy trait that was etched into his DNA.  Unfortunately he could see no other way to gain a cover story.  The fact that he had to drag the brother into it who had been nothing but supportive recently made it all the more painful. 

He picked up the phone and prepared to put the next phase of his plan into action.

“Hey Virg.”

“Hey yourself.  Now what are you after?”

“I resent that.  I don’t only call you when I want something.  Can’t one brother call another for a friendly chat.”

“They can, but you’ve got that look you always get before you ask a favour.”

“I do not have a look.”

“You so do.  Now spit it out, I’ve got class soon.”

The chestnut gaze appraising Gordon from the call screen was holding back the twinkle of a laugh.  It was true that Gordon was a fairly open book to him and he couldn’t resist teasing just a little bit.  He had a knack for reading the moods of his brothers, even those that were an enigma to others in the family.  Call it creative intuition.  Also, any chats were reserved for the evenings when each of them had finished with class and training so a morning call in itself was a good indication that Gordon had a pressing question.

“Fine, can I come up and stay with you again for a few days?”

“Sure, you know you’re always welcome here.  Feeling the need to escape the old man again?”

Gordon nodded.  He hated lying to Virgil but he needed an excuse to leave town.  He rechecked the dates on the sheaf of papers, his selection course details, carefully kept out of the field of vision of the camera and made arrangements for a trip to Denver.

That evening Gordon approached the study and knocked on the door with more confidence than he felt inside.  He heard the shuffling of files being closed and by the time he was granted permission to enter the desk was empty and Jeff’s screen was blank. 

Jeff couldn’t deny that he was annoyed at the intrusion, it felt like his conversations with Gordon were going round in a never ending loop and he could ill afford the time to deal with yet another futile argument.  However, it was unusual for Gordon to actively seek him out so he cleared his desk and bade him enter.

“Yes, Gordon?  What is it?”  He turned steely eyes on his son, expecting to be presented with a request for new equipment or notification of another competition.

“I’d like to go back to Denver for a few days please.  Would you mind booking the flights?”  

“Denver?” the request was not one he had anticipated.  “Is Virgil ok with you visiting?”

Gordon nodded.  “Here are the dates, I’ve already checked and Virg is happy for me to stay.  As long as you're ok with it, that is.”  He withdrew a piece of paper from his pocket with the flight details on and placed it on the desk.  

Jeff picked it up and studied the slip of paper in silence.  Part of him wanted to insist on something in return but for once there was nothing unreasonable in Gordon’s request and he was having to learn that his fourth son needed handling differently to the others.  Despite the small age gap between them Gordon was most definitely not John who viewed the word through the eyes of a scientist and would happily counterbalance an action with an appropriate reaction.   If anything having Gordon out of the way for a few days would do him and favour and allow him to move his project forward.  It wouldn’t be long before the school term started again signalling Alan's return from summer camp and Jeff’s obligations tied him firmly to LA.  He mentally rearranged his diary, oblivious to the growing impatience of the teen in front of him.

“So, can I go?” Gordon couldn’t contain himself any longer.

“Sure, if Virgil is sure it won’t disrupt his studies.”

“It won’t, I did check and he’s honestly fine with me being there,” Gordon played his trump card “University of Denver has an open day scheduled for then.”  It wasn’t a lie, Gordon reflected, there really was an open day he just had no intention of going to it.

“Fine, leave it with me.  I’ll book the flights for you.”

He dismissed Gordon and took a moment to pause.  If nothing else the burgeoning friendship between his second and fourth sons was to be encouraged.  Virgil was a steady and calming influence and Gordon always seemed less abrasive after talking to the quiet engineer.  He had been finding Gordon an increasing trial on his patience, his attempts to steer him towards a suitable future seemed to be falling on deaf ears.  His suggestions were usually met with stony silence but on occasion tempers could flare on both sides of the table.  The latest incident had resulted in him threatening to remove Gordon’s allowance; he wasn’t proud of his actions but he was prepared to follow through if necessary.  He hoped this trip marked a turning point for them.  A sign that Gordon was finally taking responsibility and giving his future options some serious thought.

xoxoxox

Gordon got out of the car at the airport drop off point and waited politely for the driver to hand him his kit bag from the trunk.  For once his father’s predictability in sending him in one of the company vehicles made his plan that little bit easier to pull off.  He thanked the driver then watched the car pull away before turning and entering the terminal building.

Rather than heading to the counters to check in he headed to the airline information desk.

“How can I help you, sir?"

Gordon swallowed slightly then flashed a confident smile.  If there were no available seats this would be the point where his plan fell apart.

“I’d like to change the destination on my ticket please.”

“Certainly; as long as the new flight has availability.  You will also be liable for any difference in ticket price and an administration fee.  Now, what are the details of the journey?”

Gordon handed across the details of the flights he wanted and waited nervously while the ticket agent called up the information.  Ten minutes and fifty dollars later and the tickets for Denver had been replaced with new ones for Marineville.  

Grabbing a juice from a nearby cafe he settled down to wait for his call for boarding.  He knew he ought to call Virgil but every time he pulled out his phone a wave of guilt washed over him.  He took another sip of juice to settle his stomach.  Eventually though he couldn’t put it off any longer, the flight for Denver would be departing soon and he knew time was running out if he was to make this convincing.  He didn’t want to lie to Virgil but neither could he let him in on the plan, his brother's morals would gnaw away at him and likely have him spilling everything to their father.  Much better not to be reliant on others to keep his secrets.  He found a quiet corner and made sure he kept the video screen off before spinning a tale that he was grounded and no longer able to make the trip.

To his immense relief Virgil bought the story without too many questions.  He had to firmly turn down his brother’s offer to intercede, typical Virgil trying to be defender of the wounded.  Gordon made his brother give a firm promise not to get involved before closing the call.

As far as Virgil was concerned he was still in LA while his father believed he was in Denver, Gordon was therefore free for a few days.  As the final call for boarding rang out across the tannoy system he headed for the gate and the flight that would take him up the coast towards the chance at a new future.

#thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #my art #high expectations #Gordon Tracy #Jeff Tracy #Virgil Tracy

[okayoonoh]

KUN’S FAMILY

here’s the fifth part of this series! kun’s family is honestly so adorable :)))

here’s the masterlist for all things nct dad related! there’s more parts to this that you guys can read so go and check them out!

QIAN KUN

he has 2 daughters, qian lei and qian fen. lei is 5 years older than her little sister, fen.

QIAN LEI: >> as a baby <<

she stole kun’s heart from the second she let out her first breath

she’s kun’s princess and he’s 100% taken by her

she was a little more on the fussy side

but kun was there to make sure she was okay 

through and through

kun was an amazing father from the start

like he didn’t really read a lot of parenting books, he only read like one

he was naturally an amazing father

he knew how to deal with everything with lei

like all of nct would be amazing fathers

but kun is honestly like the best

the boys would go to him for parenting advice

kun would know everything and have an answer to all of their questions

anyway

lei was a pretty normal baby

she was born prematurely and was really sick :,(

she had to stay behind in the hospital for a little bit

you were really sad and panicked a lot, but kun took this news very well

he was nervous, but he was supportive for you and he gave you a shoulder to cry on

thank goodness he was strong for you

because his strength let lei get better faster than expected

she was so tiny as baby

kun held her so delicately

like she was made of fine china

hehehe puns

anyway

because she was sick, she was pretty fussy

there were many nights that she kept you up because she was so uncomfortable

kun would wake up for all the hours of of the night to comfort her

like you know the video of the toddler crying and the dad straight up climbs in her crib and sleeps in the crib with his toddler?

kun would do stuff like that

because kun sang to her a lot whenever she’d cry, she started developing her love for music at this early age

>> as a child <<

kun taught her how to play piano and it’s her favorite instrument

she learns how to write songs at this age

she’s really good at the piano and she has the sweetest voice

you and kun put her in all of the advanced piano classes

she loves it

as a child, she was pretty competitive with piano and music

she’s the type of girl that like is really studious

she just wants to make you guys proud

and she does, and you let her know that

but she still works hard to 

she’s best friends with lucas’s oldest son, wong liwei (they’re born the same year)

they became close because they spent so much time together growing up

they’re almost polar opposites, but they’re still close friends

liwei is kinda dumb lol

lei is really smart

so she tutors him

liwei respects lei and he listens to her

lei is a little more on the mellow side

she’s friendly and a little more quiet

she gets along well with everyone, but she especially gets together well with taeil’s oldest daughter, moon yoojin

they’re both rather quiet so they bond over that

while akari, noah, kaleb, etc. were playing, yoojin and lei would stay back and read together

(read the other parts if ya wanna learn more about the other kids ;))

lei was really bad at sports because of it lol

even still, she was still crazy smart

she always thinks logically 

her music was actually really beautiful, but she lacked the emotions

everything would be technically perfect, but it lacked the human aspect

she was devastated because she thought she got everything perfect

liwei helped teach her how to be more emotional with her stuff

and she started looking at love and beauty in the world

like she took in the love kun and you have for each other

she took a step back and learned about the love she has for her sister 

the love she has for liwei

she just took all of that and expressed her emotion through her music

that was the last step she needed until she became truly great

this is how liwei and lei truly became best friends

it’s because he taught her that it’s okay to have emotions lol

she learned how to love better because of it :)

>> as a teen/adult <<

she became a well known song writer

she doesn’t necessarily want to be an idol herself

but she does enjoy helping them write songs

she really loves jazz and wants to increase the complexity of music

she doesn’t really want her music to be cookie cutter music

a lot of ballad singers go to her for music

because her music is really complex and beautiful

taeil’s son, moon seojoon, did a whole album with her

all of the kids who do stuff with music work with her

piano is her main instrument, but she knows how to play so many more

music is her life

she views music in a philosophical sense

(i also view music like this so imma get a little philosophical on y’all lol)

she knows that music lives on past any of us

and it’s this higher thing that isn’t ours

lei learned that, and that’s why her music is so good

she’s friendly and kind, but she knows how to be professional and how to treat music with respect

she will never ever trash people for their style tho

like there are a couple kids who became idols

and she supports them 100%

she’ll teach them about music if they’re curious

she’s respectful and supportive and will never tear anyone down because they don’t believe in the same things she does

she’ll go to nakamoto yui’s flower shop whenever she needs inspiration

she knows how to write all types of music tho

like she can make a sick beat

or make a killer rock piece

her favorite style to make is jazz

liwei is still her best friend at this point

he still learns a lot from her

she learns from him too

honestly, he’s her muse lol

like and he’s so kind about everything

he could listen to her talk for hours about this new theory she discovered

and like he won’t really understand a word

but he’ll still listen

whether they get together or not, they still are each other’s best friend

they compliment each other so well

lei writes songs for you and kun all of the time

kun even writes songs with her whenever he can

he’s so proud with all that his daughters have done

lei dedicates so many songs to the two of you

like ugh she’s just a really amazing music lover

QIAN FEN: >> as a baby <<

she loves all things that are soft

she’s also kun’s princess

he’s so happy he had 2 girls

he loves them oh so much

he wouldn’t trade any moment for anything

fen wasn’t sick at all

she was happy and healthy

she was also very tiny tho lol

she loved to eat everything

she wasn’t picking with anything either

fen would eat anything you put in front of her 

she was like always hungry too lol

she was tiny when she was born but she gained a lot of baby fat

she had the fullest cheeks

everyone wanted to squeeze them all of the time

she has dimples

you’re sure she got her dimples from kun 

but kun is sure she got her dimples because you guys kiss her cheeks so much

you nicknamed her mochi because of her cheeks

she was your typical baby

she loved to play

she loved to sleep

her favorite toys were her little plastic cooking toys

kun hated every moment he was away from his two princess

he truly did spoil the heck out of them

the girls got along with each other really well too

when you were pregnant with fen

lei would attend to your every need

like while kun is cooking for the family

lei would go and make you some tea because your belly made it hard for you to stand up without someone’s help lol

like lei was a really good older sister to fen

fen didn’t really complain a lot when she was watched by lei

she was just an all around chonky cutie :)))

>> as a child <<

she discovers that she loves cooking at this age

she’s really good at cooking too

like

she showed up on one of those kid cooking shows

she learned that this is what she wanted to do from an early age

fen discovered that food is yummy

and to make the yummiest food, you make it yourself

she’s best friends with lucas’s second son, wong liqiang

they became best friends because their born the same year

and fen went with lei a lot whenever they went over to lucas’s house

they’re the same age and they both agree that food is like the best thing ever

she loves your’s and kun’s cooking 

like no matter how good she gets

she’ll prefer your cooking over her’s any day

she loves to eat too

she loves to bake

she’s always baking cookies

like omg imagine

kun is busy with work

you’re also busy with work

lei is busy with practicing her piano or something

and liqiang and fen are just hanging out

they’ll make cookies together

and they’ll go by to everyone individually, delivering the cookies

they’ll be the cutest

with their big eyes, they’ll look up at you and say something like “good job for working hard! please take a cookie.”

those cookies were some of the best cookies you’ve ever had

fen is really caring and kind

she loves making people happy

she especially loves to make people happy through her cooking

>> as a teen/adult <<

she turned her love for cooking into a career

she becomes a well known chef

she goes to university to study the science of food

she owns her own cafe

she makes gorgeous sweets

fen doesn’t care for gourmet food

she used to 

she worked under a world renowned chef for a while and learned she didn’t really like it

it wasn’t fun

she wants her food to make everyone happy

and it does

liqiang and her open up a cafe together

it just has happy vibes throughout

they make yummy food

she makes sure she makes the recipes you and kun taught her

and those are some of her best ones

she comes to work everyday with a smile because she’s doing what she loves

all of the kids go to support her and liqiang’s cafe

they all collectively agree that her food is the best

a lot of food critics and reviewers love her food

even though she doesn’t own a gourmet restaurant, they still call it a must see when you visit the city she lives in

liqiang handles more of the business aspects of everything

they’re platonically best friends

liqiang also loves to make people happy

and if it’s through this business, then man, he’s satisfied

fen honestly just lives an amazing and full life where she does what makes her happy

lei supports everything she does

and fen supports everything lei does

they’re still really close together

fen cares so much about her friends and her family

she hates it whenever they’re sad

she knows that food heals all wounds

and she makes the best food

so if anyone ever wants to sad eat, go to her and she’ll take care of you.

---

honestly, lei and fen are just two of the nicest human beings because their father qian kun and you raised them so well :,)

i hope you guys liked it! i think i’ll take a small break writing the information about the kids and i might go and write some scenarios about them and their dads. we’ll see ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

if you wanna stay tuned, i don’t mind tagging you! just message me or comment that you wanna be tagged and i’ll tag you each time i update a nct dad thing, or just everytime i update in general, it’s your choice! this doesn’t bug me at all, it honestly makes me happy people want to read what i’ve got :)

anyway, doyoung’s family is up next! stay tuned you guys :)

- amy <3

#cznnet #nct #nct fluff #nct as dads #dad!nct #qian kun #kun #dad!kun #kun as a dad #taeil #johnny #taeyong #yuta #doyoung #ten #jaehyun #winwin #jungwoo #lucas #mark #xiaojun #hendery #renjun #jeno #haechan #jaemin #yangyang #chenle #jisung #fluff

[miragecounseling]

ty max and dana for tagging meeee!!! ^^ I’m gonna put it under a readmore because I talk so much sdkgjhjgfkhd This can be done in many different ways: get asks by your followers, pick some questions for yourself, answer the whole damn thing at once, etc!

You can draw, write (to explain in details or not) or just post screenshots! If you miss one it’s totally okay, whether it’s by lack of answer or time. Have fun!

Favorite living world season? Season 4 because I was around for the last couple episodes! Still never finished S2 or 3 :x and Icebrood saga will proooobably be my favorite once it’s voiced.

Favorite expansion? PoF because MOUNTS!

Favorite soundtrack? I don’t listen to much in game music x-x 

First profession you played? Necro

First race you played? Norn

Favorite Destiny’s Edge character? Garm sgjkhfh

Favorite Dragon’s Watch character? Gorrik ;-; The best boy

Favorite Elder Dragon? I think Zhaitan had such a cool design, but Jormag is probably my favorite story wise. 

Best boss fight (story)? The Balth fight (both the end one and the one in Elon) are so amazing. 

Best boss fight (fractal)? SOLID OCEAN! Tentacle fight babyyyy

Best boss fight (raid)? Oh boy. I love Samarog, VG, and Adina the most I think. 

PvE or PvP or RP? PvE and PvP! I don’t RP, I’m too awkward for that lol

Favorite canon couple? Marjory and Kas, the best babies. 

Favorite fanon/self made couple? ME AND CANACH sdkjfhjkgh Ok I love Cass’ Tera and Braham so much. They’re so sweet together and I just ;-;♥ every time I read about them. Also everyone and Trahearne. 

Favorite quote? Storm Tracking is my favorite part of A Star to Guide Us and this part with Blish just... it wrecks me every time. “Take care of Gorrik. Tell him—tell him his big brother is sorry. And... Taimi, too. After you beat Kralkatorrik, keep fighting—until you've made a world worthy of them. And...stop keeping secrets from each other. All of you.”

Most emotional cinematic? Oh man, the scene at the end of War Eternal or the end of All or Nothing. Both are so so powerful and emotional, they blew me away experiencing them the first time. 

Favorite VA? I know I keep bringing up Canach but...... like... come on... I love Trahearne, Taimi, and the female Asura VAs too! 

Post a fun screenshot! We were doing Xera and Pengy got stuck in the floor xD 

Post a landscape screenshot! Random shot from drizzlewood since it’s such a pretty map!

Most used mount(s)? S K Y S C A L E! Also warclaw and raptor / rollerbeetle just to get around. I don’t really use springer anymore since getting skyscale ;-;

Favorite mount skin (for every mount you have)? OOOH BOY. Raptor: Gallant Lightbringer / Springer: Krytan Lop / Skimmer: Sand Souled (or Dajkah lantern but I don’t have it) / Jackal: Shrine Guardian or Lucent Sands / Beetle: Branded / Warclaw: Vigilant Saberclaw / Griffon: Crowned Skyfisher / Skyscale: ALL OF THEM but mostly chonky boy

Favorite weapon? Actual weapon it’s a tie between staff and gs. Skins? Spire of Samarog for staff and Crystal Gurdian for gs. 

Favorite gear set? I use the light bounty hunter’s set S O often, I love it. 

Favorite title? Fatebreaker and Acolyte of Dwayna are my favorites I own, but I love Closer To The Stars so much!

Something you worked really hard to get? My legendary armor!!! I spent so much time (and money lol) getting it

Favorite GW2 Youtuber / GW2 related video? Lara and CMAJ make great content, Mukluk is fun to watch, and @gwylen​ has fantastic videos! 

Most used miniature? alllllll the farens (especially elfy boy and the one @resonatingfern​ gave me!) and my rytlock funko pop that pengy got for me!

Most used novelty? Embiggening tonic- makes getting close up character screenshots SO much easier. I use the chairs a lot too! 

Number of achievments points? 17,067!

Something you’d love to see in GW2? Performance fixes and WvW updates ;-; Also more character customization options and home instance improvements. 

I’m pretty late to doing this SORRY!!!! 

#long post

[archosaur-automaton]

Astro-Second Helpings, Episode 2: The Hound of the Baskerbots

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Astro-Second Helpings! Today we'll be reviewing the second Transformers toy (Transmetal Optimal Optimus notwithstanding, z"l) ever acquired by yours truly! Today's boy is WFC-S9 Hound, from the War For Cybertron: Siege subline.

Hound, in the G1 continuity, is modeled after a Mitsubishi J59 Jeep, and serves as the Autobots' scout. He's seen very early on in the 1984 cartoon, being part of the original scouting mission sent by Optimus to investigate and eventually discover the presence of the Decepticons. When he isn't playing football, doggedly pursuing enemies, or using his hologram projection capabilities to create illusions to trick the Decepticons, he's enjoying the natural wonders of Earth and, as his original tech spec states, wishing that he were human. Buddy, you're barking up exactly the right tree -- your old pal archosaur-automaton sure as hell knows what dysphoria is like.

(Seriously. He plays football.)

Hound was obtained soon after Six-Gun at another expedition to Target. His blocky form and subtle-but-poignant dark green coloration were an immediate eye-catcher and thus he was acquired.

As always, we'll be using six categories (Coloration, Overall Design, Quality of Manufacture, Loadout, Transformations, Transformability) with a five-star rating system to judge this boy, even if he really ain't nothin' but a hound dog.

COLORATION

Here's a shot of Hound on our desk in robot mode.

He does have some of the characteristic Siege 'battle damage' effect on his legs, but unlike Six-Gun, it doesn't feel at all out of place or confusing, mostly because it blends so well and isn't obtrusive.

As you can see, he's a very dark green with some attractive accents of yellow/orange, white, light grey, and black, a good earth-tones palette. This is relatively true to his cartoon appearance, though his green was slightly lighter there. The white stars on his shoulders are striking, and provide a nice contrast to the overall darker coloration. The brighter yellow/orange accents are an effective way of adding a splash of brightness to him, and they don't feel at all overdone.

Hound is fairly uncomplicated in terms of coloration because honestly, he doesn't have any need for a complex paint job or go off-leash with anything fancy. He's a boy who knows where his towel is, at least hue-wise.

Coloration Score: 5/5. It's exactly what it's supposed to be.

OVERALL DESIGN

Hound is, how shall we say, blocky. Chonky, even. There's not a lot that's sleek about him -- he's mostly an unapologetic series squares and rectangular prisms. And you know what? That's honestly pretty great. He might not have HUGE shoulderonhonkero pauldrons, but he more than makes up for it in the gams department.

Seriously, look at those things. It's like two air conditioner units with feet on 'em. I love big-calved robots and Hound manages to play a mean game of fetch in that department, eagerly delivering something we feel confident calling sexy.

As per the above, he's got a pretty humanoid face, and we're usually ambivalent about humanoid faces on Transformers, but Hound is such a good fellow with those puppy-dog eyes and that sweet punim that you can't help but love.

One big bugbear we have about Hound's design could technically fall under loadout, but it's a big enough part of his appearance that it feels entirely relevant. As you can see from the shot of Hound on our desk, compared with the shot from the cartoon, you'll notice one striking difference. He doesn't have his big rocket/missile launcher! Sure, he's got a shoulder-mounted gun, but it doesn't look anything like that iconic G1 missile. That's a big disappointment -- even if it wasn't part of the base mold they could have at LEAST included another weapon that resembled that good good look we all know and love.

Overall Design Score: 4/5. Toss this boy a bone and give him the missile launcher!!!

QUALITY OF MANUFACTURE

There's not really much to tell here. His joints aren't too tight, aren't too loose. The little black piece on his back that serves as the frame for the jeep doors is a little flimsy, but it's nothing major. Everything that's supposed to snap together does so without a hassle and we never felt worried that anything would come unaligned during play. Additionally, he is not a "partsformer" which really helps with making things feel nice. There is one thing that stands out about him, which is questionably in the middle between "overall design" and "quality of manufacture", but we'll put here because why not.

To facilitate his vehicle transformation, Hound's shoulders have extra articulation that allow him to pull his arms way back in a realistic fashion. This is always a cool thing and makes him really fun to play with. You can almost imagine him delivering a nice wind-up punch right to the nose of some rabid Decepticon.

Quality of Manufacture Score: 5/5

LOADOUT

His guns are okay. The long gun has a neat little barrel which looks nicer than the mostly-flat guns most Transformers get, and none of it feels too big or unwieldy. However, he does not have his rocket launcher. When we think about that, our tail stops waggin'. Give rocket launcher. Gib rocket launcher please and thank.

Loadout: 3.5/5

TRANSFORMATIONS Hound transforms into, as previously mentioned, a Jeep.

The Jeep is a classic sort of car design and it's really hard to screw it up. For the most part, his vehicle mode is pretty great, especially once you add the guns and you get a capable, armed little scout vehicle to play with. However, there's one thing that's pretty obnoxious about his transformation:

His arms, tucked on the underside of the Jeep, are SO close to the ground that they can and in fact do impede his vehicular movement. Additionally, his wheels aren't the best on smooth surfaces which is sort of disappointing, and combined with the arms problem his usefulness as a vehicle is pretty limited. He's nice to look at, though, which acts as a moderate offset.

Transformations Score: 3.5/5. Hound should keep his armies in his sleevies, or at the very least somewhere more convenient.

TRANSFORMABILITY

It was a little hard to reason about how to transform him at first, due mostly to confusing and hard to read diagrams in the transformation booklet when it came to getting his wheels aligned. Additionally, the black jeep doorframe part on his back can bump up against and get caught on his legs, making it tricky to get everything hunky-dory.

In the end, though, once you get his transformation down the first time, it's a piece of cake -- he really wants to help you get him into his vehicle mode. Transformers fan's best friend, one supposes.

Transformability Score: 4/5

To sum up, while there are a few hairy decisions about Hound's design and manufacture, he's an overall well-made guy who gives you plenty to chew on, both visually and during actual play. We love this guy and are so happy to have him as a plastic companion to provide endless fun.

When you add it all up, Hound's aggregate score is 25/6, which when rounded down equals 4, and we're more than happy to let sleeping dogs lie.

OVERALL RATING: 4/5

#Transformers #transformers siege #transformers reviews #astro second helpings #toys #hound

[thedollnerd]

Very excited to get my first LOL OMG doll.   I’ve been eyeballing these dolls ever since they came out, read a lot of reviews, people talked about how great the details on the dolls are and along with decent articulation, it was an irresistable combo.. The strange chibi heads put me off at first, but I’m always a sucker for a fully articulated doll, and these are actually chubby looking! .. or at least plumper than the usual fashion doll.

Groovy Babe is from the latest wave of LOL OMG dolls, called Lights.  They all have some kind of UV-reactive element on their face and/or clothes and each doll is inspired by a different type of 60s fashion.  I don’t know an exact reference to point out other than Twilight Zone, but Groovy Babe is clearly evoking a whole black and white psychedelic/hypnotic vibe.  I feel like there’s a film reference here that I’m not aware of.  She is also supposed to be a beatnik poet.

I kinda love the little hatbox, it fits all her accessories except the comb.  The little white cylinder is a tiny blacklight, with battery included.  The “book” is a single sheet of paper folded in half.  

Hair: super thin rooting on the top of her head, can see scalp through the hair (including black lines presumably there to guide the rooting but clearly totally ignored).  The long hair feels soft, but it’s a little plasticky – is it nylon?  Bangs are one solid mass of gel plastered to her forehead.

Clothing: Cutout in dress is poorly sewn and bunchy.  Jacket is pretty nice but was carelessly stuffed into the garment bag, so now the lining is sticking out in the front and the collar is permanently popped (which also shows a white mesh lining).

Fully dressed, she looks like maybe she made her clothes herself, and isn’t terribly good at it. 

Tights and boots are perfect.  Earrings are adorable!  They spin!  Hypnotic!  But they’re hard to see when she’s wearing them; they kind of face sideways and her hair covers them.  Also, the paint has started coming off already, the first time I put them on the doll.  Sunglasses are odd and not very 60s mod, but pretty damn cool; they’re made of a softish, almost rubbery plastic, so they’re very easy to put on and take off without having to worry about breaking them.  The long narrow glasses look funky and cool with the round eyes of the doll; makes me think of Novi Stars.

  Body:  Love those curves!  These dolls have wonderfully chonky butts and thighs.  Butt dimples!  Still has a thigh gap though, for some damn reason.  Also, extreme hourglass waist and sculpted abs, just in case you might be afraid this doll is a nasty fatty fatfat.  Beautiful curvy legs, but sadly they have very old-fashioned jointing – hips have zero rotation and knees are crappy click joints that are hard to use and barely bend.

  Why these dolls come with chair-like stands is totally beyond my comprehension, since they can barely sit.  Feet are en pointe like a ballerina – not just tiptoed high heel feet, these are almost torturously pointed.  Wonderfully sculpted little toes though.  Smallish pointed breasts with just a hint of nipples.  Painted-on bikini undies match her pale turquoise eyeshadow.  Hands pop off for ease of dressing and are gracefully sculpted, with cute little dimples on the knuckles (which would make more sense on chubby hands, but whatever).  The hands actually go off and on really nicely, no fear that I’m going to break the joint doing it.  Fingernails are pointy and painted white; the paint is actually quite well-done here, they’ve done a pretty good job of keeping it only on the nails without overspray onto the fingers (unlike some other OMG dolls I’ve seen).

Face: Bizarre LOL round-eyed face; almost Bratz-like in the lips and near lack of a nose, but the eyes are absolutely enormous and perfectly round.  The proportions of the features put me off at first, but there’s something about the way they’re done that’s surprisingly appealing.  This doll has a very matte faceup in solid colors; edges are mostly clean and the paint is almost completely within the lines of the sculpt.  Her lips remind me of a certain iconic stomach medicine.  Eyeshadow is a light turquoise color with a darker turquoise line above it, with a cat-eye black liner and spiky lower lashes that mimic the drawn-on lashes people used to do in the 60s.  Somebody did their homework on 60s mod makeup.   Eye color is an indigo blue, complements the makeup nicely; a little boring, but more detail in the eyes might just make them look creepy since they’re so very large. 

My doll has three tiny black spots on her face, and a handful of faint white spots on the black of one eye (the paint seems thinner on this eye for some reason – the swirl is more obvious in regular light).  Head has an unfortunate tendency to tilt slightly back, and not because of the weight of her hair.  She can tilt her head just fine when she’s looking to the side, but facing forward, she can’t look up or down at all.  The vinyl of her head is slightly more orangey than her body?  

Gimmick: It’s a fail, at least with this particular doll, at least with the tiny black light included with her.  The black and white overall color scheme looks cool under black light, but the specifically UV-sensitive stuff is mostly barely there. The UV-sensitive? stripe on the dress is rather visible in regular light, and yet indistinguishable with the black light.  The “hypnotic” twirls in her eyes are barely visible even with the black light right up against them.  I tested all of this in the dark btw.

The makeup is the one thing that actually does change noticeably.  The lips are still pretty much the same color, but they’re super bright neon under the black light.  The eye makeup changes color and has an extra layer of eyeliner that’s mostly invisible under regular light.

It’s a pretty underwhelming effect overall, but if I had a blacklight room I’d display her in it, after finding her some new clothes.  I’d rather they’d just made things better quality and not done the stupid gimmick, but whatever; their goal is to sell toys to children and the LOL brand is kind of rooted in gimmicks.

These dolls are extreme caricatures of a “sexy” human female (if you like big butts – and do not lie).  I do wonder if they were inspired by Betty Boop; they have almost an identical silhouette, with the big round heads, tiny waist, and big hips.  Their proportions are so cartoony and absurd and clearly very thoughtful choices were made that sacrificed functionality for form – the terrible click joints in those smooth, shapely legs, for example.  Though why the hip joints couldn’t rotate is a choice I can’t understand..

She’s a cute little doll, to be sure, but not display-worthy, or even something I’m really excited about photographing (which is the only real surprise involved in opening this box that supposedly contained 15 surprises). 

Real talk about the surprises, actually – the things included in this box that are not pictured on it are: the stand, the garment bag with plastic hanger, the plastic hatbox with patterned tissue paper, the sunglasses, and a folded piece of paper pretending to be a notebook of poems.  So the only real bonus item that you wouldn’t expect to receive by looking at the box is the sunglasses.  At least there’s something. 

Anyway.  I’m left with mixed feelings, honestly kind of disappointed?  Is the doll I got sub-par or is this typical?  Am I just hugely, stupidly picky?  I want to rehair her; she’s crying out for it, really.  Maybe I’ll fall in love with her once her worst flaw is gone.  Maybe I’ll rip her head off and try some other ones.  Maybe she can be my big-booty guinea pig.

This is the best I could get her clothes to look in a photo.. Unless she’s holding it shut like this, the jacket keeps flapping open with that white mesh stuff flopping out.

Still excited for Angles.  I’ve had a thing for Mondrian and his right angles for a long time and it’s really fun to see his art referenced with a fashion doll.

Review: Groovy Babe LOL OMG doll Very excited to get my first LOL OMG doll.   I've been eyeballing these dolls ever since they came out, read a lot of reviews, people talked about how great the details on the dolls are and along with decent articulation, it was an irresistable combo..

#Groovy Babe

[stxleslyds]

LET’S TALK ABOUT BATMAN AND ROBIN #20 (2011).

And the issues that followed that story (Batman and Robin vol.2 #34-37)

DC and the fandom really let Bruce get away with what he did to Jason in that issue. DC because they had Jason go back to Bruce a few issues later to finish their story and the fandom because this moment in comics isn’t talked about enough which has led people to believe that the the concept of “batfamily” as it is in fandom belongs in canon.

This type of moments in stories should make a bigger impact on comic relationships and fandom’s perception of said relationships. From where I am standing Bruce’s actions in that issue are right on the edge of unforgivable and they could have used them as a key moment for Jason to finally move on from all Bat related bullshit without thinking that he had to stay and finish the job (of getting Damian back).

Making Jason move on so easily from that situation really makes it look like if Batman is physically, emotionally, or mentally abusive to his children then it’s not that much of a big deal, it’s just a subplot to a bigger story.

And that is something that happens repeatedly in current comics and it’s disgusting.

Anyway, now that I am done with my rambling, I will start talking about the issues that I mentioned.

Batman and Robin (2011) #20 – Written by Peter Tomasi.

For a little context, this issue is set after Damian’s death and Bruce is looking for ways to resurrect him.

And in this particular issue of this run, Batman recruits Jason Todd between the events of RHatO vol. 1 #18 and #19, that’s why in the cover of the issue the name of the run is changed to ‘Batman and Red Hood’.

A bit more context is that in issue #18 Jason finally recovers from the injuries that he got when the trap that Joker had put on his helmet detonated, and Jason was also having an existential crisis after the Joker convinced him that he was always present in Jason’s life and that he shaped the man that Jason had become (If you want to read more about that and the times' Joker has played with Jason’s mind, I have this post in which I talk all about that).

Good, now I can finally talk about this hellish issue.

Bruce asks for Jason’s help because he wants to take down some marksmen and women that are based in Ethiopia that might or might not have been the same people who took on the job of looking for Damian when his mother had put a bounty on his head.

One would imagine that Bruce calling Jason for this job means that he would let Jason kill some people, bounty-hunters that are money-driven enough to kill children seem to be the kind of people Jason would have in his black list, but Jason is smart and he knows that Batman won’t let him kill so he asks why is Bruce asking him of all people to join him on this mission, Batman replies with “Because I am seeing red”.

If you, like me, don’t understand why Batman would ask the Red Hood to stop him from killing some very shady people then don’t worry, Batman was lying, he didn’t ask Jason to go with him to beat some bounty-hunters, he has ulterior motives.

I will give it to Tomasi, he wrote Jason as the smart cookie that he is because Jason doesn’t stop picking up on the weird technicalities of the mission, and I will go as far as to say that Jason never truly believed that Bruce was being honest about the true nature of their mission. Smart Chonky, I miss you and love you.

Once they get to Ethiopia Bruce starts setting the rules of engagement (don’t shoot to kill, only hands, knees, and elbows), and off they go. Bruce even makes a comment about how it “feels like old times” and Jason is all happy and warm that Bruce invited him to beat some baddies and he also brings up the fact that Bruce stayed by his side while he was recovering from his injuries, very lovely stuff that will soon mean nothing (and that should have meant nothing because Bruce and his lies had resulted in Joker knowing all of their secret identities and messing with all of them in horrible ways, but the Bat can get away with that too).

Here is part of Bruce’s speech about trust and his lies, “You don’t ever need to thank me, Red Hood, for a family always looks out for each other” to which Jason says, “Yeah but a family also needs to earn each other’s trust” and Bruce continues his speech with, “comes a time when having to keep earning someone’s trust stops and you hope the people you’ve put your faith in will always have your back no matter what”.

Batman, everyone, master detective and master manipulator.

As Batman is talking manipulating Jason he beats every bounty hunter almost effortlessly because he had brought some bat-gadgets that were going to make the fight really easy. And as the fight is over in what looks like a minute Batman and Red Hood get on the Batmobile ready to leave Ethiopia… or not.

Jason is very aware that Batman didn’t need him for that so-called mission so he starts to ask more and more firmly about the real reason as to why Batman brought him to this place.

Batman brought Jason back to Ethiopia, but most importantly back to the Magdala Valley because he wants to see if Jason going back to the place where he died will make him remember how he was resurrected.

Yep, talk about having messed-up parents. Bruce is positively the worst at this moment, but it gets worse.

Jason is rightfully pissed off, he says, “You lied to me, this wasn’t about taking down those mercenaries. You wanted to bring me here, to the worst place in the world and here I was starting to believe all your crap about trust and faith...”

To which Bruce says, “I thought bringing you here could jog your memory, maybe retrieve a detail buried deep in your subconscious that could help piece together how you came back to life so I…”

And my man Jason really continues his thought process only to later tell him how much of a piece of shit he truly is (I love this Chonky, go Jason show this man that he ain’t shit).

“…could apply it to getting Damian back. Yeah, I get it. Did it ever occur to you I might like keeping whatever the hell happened to me buried deep? If you cared about me, you wouldn’t want me to dredge up the one thing I’ve been trying to forget. I don’t want to remember the most horrific day of my life all right? You may like wallowing in your tragedies, Bruce, but I’m done looking back!”

Jason, bravo, tell him exactly how you feel! Any sort of good human being would surely accept that they crossed a massive line and that they should ask for forgiveness next, right?... Right?

No. And that’s because Bruce is a horrible human being, I am sorry but it had to be said, this man has zero empathy for Jason and he proves it when he says the following.

“If you cared about me and what I’ve lost, you’d want to dredge this up! Don’t you see, there is a chance you can help me erase one of the worst days of MY life, Jason! You can give me the greatest gift of all and help me figure out how to bring my son back”

Fuck Bruce Wayne. This man has no right whatsoever to talk this way to Jason, no matter how you see this situation, the whole thing is fucked up. Bruce puts his needs above Jason’s feelings and he diminishes Jason’s position as his son because Bruce only refers to Damian as his son. This whole thing is incredibly nasty.

Here we should have had the point of no return for Jason and Bruce’s relationship, although if you are like me, you might think that the point of no return happened way back in Batman (1940) #650 when Bruce decided that saving the Joker by throwing a batarang at Jason’s neck (how did he know that Jason would survive that, I have no idea, maybe Bruce can see the future) was a better option compared to Jason finally killing the clown. Because that’s the thing, Jason was going to kill the clown but Bruce didn’t let him because he didn’t want more blood in Jason’s hands, I laugh until this day about how stupid Bruce’s thinking was there.

Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that Jason should have said bye-bye to Batman and all related Batman crap from this moment on. It would have been perfect but DC can’t help themselves and Lobdell’s self-insert-Jason really wants to be part of this amazing family so, no luck for Jason or us.

If you have read my latest post about Joker getting under Jason’s skin or read issue #18 of RHatO you know the context of what Jason says next.

“Yeah, and how about me? How about the gift of not knowing that the Joker manipulated my entire life, huh? The clown tainted everything, the good, the bad, hell my life’s even been tainted by you!”

Yup, Jason was going through it, and he had talked about these feelings with Bruce previously in issue #17 of RHatO, he had asked Bruce if he thought that Joker had created him and Bruce said, “No Jason, He didn’t make you, I never did either. You made you” and Jason was extremely thankful for that. And now, here we are, these feelings are being brought up again but in a very different situation.

Them arguing becomes a physical fight and after Jason asks Bruce “why are you making me stand in the exact same spot he beat me to death?” He replies this “Because I want to watch Damian grow up damn it! Damian earned that right! And I want to give it to him!”

This conversation only gets worse and Bruce’s most horrible side comes to light, like, I understand that Bruce wants Damian to be alive and all that but he is saying all the wrong stuff to Jason. I feel like as the reader I am being told that Bruce values Damian more than he ever did Jason because he is willing to put Jason through his own personal hell for Damian but refuses to see the reasons as to why Jason doesn’t want to do it. Bruce is being incredibly selfish and he is not caring enough about Jason to notice that he is hurting him. He even doesn’t notice after Jason says, “I was ready to stand by your side and you’ve thrown it all away!”

It is incredibly sad but it's also a bit of a look into what Bruce will do to Dick in Nightwing vol. 3 #30. It has the exact same vibe in both issues, Bruce going completely berserk on his children and telling them that he “trained them to be better”.

This issue ends with Jason punching Bruce several times and Bruce taunting Jason by telling him that he might as well continue because he is “still standing”. The levels of manipulation that Bruce had going on here weren’t as high as the ones in Nightwing #30 but he sure was a little bitch every step of the way.

Jason, being smart, doesn’t take the bait and tells Bruce that he is leaving and he is taking the car.

Wouldn’t this have been an amazing moment for Jason to finally rid himself of all Batman-related events and bullshit? How did DC miss this amazing opportunity to make Jason Todd/Red Hood a character that can stand on his own and with his own rules?

The potential that was wasted when they made Jason go back to Bruce and help him get Damian back in issues 33 to 37 of this same run is immeasurable. And just like Joker being able to get under Jason’s skin, him going back to Bruce and the “family” for plot purposes harmed Jason’s characterization greatly.

Batman and Robin (2011) #34-37 – Written by Peter Tomasi.

Whatever kind of respect I held for Tomasi because of the way he wrote Jason in #20 is now gone. Issues 34 to 37 have Jason fighting alongside Batman and him being all buddy-buddy with him.

Now, let me make something clear, Bruce wanting to bring Damian back to life/from Apokolips is absolutely fine with me, a father fighting for his son’s life can always make a good story, the thing is that at this point in time not only the events of Batman and Robin #20 have happened but so have the events of Nightwing #30.

So, Bruce going through all of this for one of his kids (that keeps being brought up as if he were his only son) after he emotionally manipulated Jason and Dick makes this story very bitter.

But I understand what DC is doing, you know? Here is how they manage to make this story as bitter-sweet as possible. In issue 34 of this run, Dick shows up in his Spyral get-up and offers his help in getting Damian back, because the kid meant a lot to him but Bruce can’t have Dick helping him out along with Barbara and Tim because Bruce has everyone convinced that Dick is dead. So, DC was like “here is this big brain idea, let’s have Jason, Barbara, and Tim helping Bruce get Damian back”. And that’s exactly what they did.

They dragged Jason back to Batman-related crap after he was manipulated, insulted, and punched by the man that is supposed to be his father. And this issue is also happening after Jason had such an immense existential crisis that he decided to have his memory wiped so he could cleanse himself on any doubt that the Joker had manipulated his free will.

How on earth are we supposed to believe that Jason is dumb enough to go back to Batman after all that? Does DC and its writers read their own material? Do they check if the characters that they are planning on using have contradicting narratives?

It’s so messy, the opportunity that DC, Tynion, Tomasi, and Lobdell got to make Jason his own man and his own character was completely wasted, just for a Batman event!

And it isn’t like Jason’s participation in getting Damian back was crucial, it really wasn’t, if I am planning on taking a team of heroes to Apokolips for a rescue mission, Jason, Barbara and Tim wouldn’t be my first options. Jason was put in that book only so they could have someone making snarky comments and for Jason to be like “Bruce we are family, we will always have each other’s backs” I mean, who is Jason supposed to be, Dom Toretto?

Here are some of the moments that seemed the most out of touch for Jason in these issues.

Batman and Robin #34

In issue 34 Bruce gives a long speech about him not wanting to hide things anymore from them (like he did during the events of Death of the Family) and that he wants a new start because they “have been broken long enough” so from that moment forward “good or bad, the truth rules”.

The audacity of this man, my god, how dense can Bruce be? “we’ve been broken long enough”? YOU have broken your relationship with these people time and time again! As you are standing there talking about the truth you are hiding the fact that Dick is alive and well somewhere far away because YOU sent him on a very dangerous mission after he died and you manipulated him.

THE AUDACITY OF THIS PIECE OF SHIT! Am I becoming an anti-Batman blog? I think I am and quite honestly, I am having the time of my life. Fuck this guy.

But back to the issue, after Bruce says that the truth is all that goes now, Barbara basically says that she doesn’t believe him, that all it takes for Bruce to go back to lying is “another situation that justifies you going dark on us in more ways than one” HA! You go, girl! But he is already hiding something from all of you.

Jason being himself supplies a situation like the ones where Batman lies to them in order to get them to work for him, he says, “or bringing me to Magdala Valley on a sightseeing trip to reminisce about the good old days of crowbars and explosions”, ah yes, sure, Bruce did all that back in issue 20 and now it is brought up as an afterthought… how wonderful.

Bruce, of course, lies to their faces when he says “I promise that nothing gets held back. We speak our mind no matter what the cost” to which Jason says “Unconditional truth now and forever, Bruce, otherwise this is all a load of crap”.

AND IT IS! IT IS ALL A LOAD OF CRAP CHONKY! RUN, RUN LIKE THE WIND!

Man, what a mess, poor Dick. He had to wait there and watch his father lie his ass off. And he really wanted to help Bruce get Damian back. Even after Bruce told Dick (as well as Barbara, Tim, and Jason) that he had to go to Apokolips alone Dick still helped Bruce in other ways, Dick really is the MVP, what a man, I love him so much!

(I really needed to show my love for Dick right then and there, sometimes you just have to do it. Dick Grayson is, after all, the greatest comic character to have ever been created).

Batman and Robin #36

First of all, seeing Jason and Barbara wearing the Robin symbol really makes me laugh. It’s just weird to see Barbara wear it, it almost feels like it’s something that shouldn’t have happened and in Jason’s case, well, the last time he wore it he died and it’s kinda funny to see beefy and tall Red Hood wearing a Robin symbol, it’s just funny not a critique.

What I am going to critique from this issue is that after they (Jason, Barbara, and Tim) go to Apokolips and find Bruce they say, “You’re here in this hellish place for your son, Bruce” and Jason continues that with, “And we’re here for you”.

Ah, the irony. Of all people, having Jason say that to Bruce is wild. This man has done nothing for Jason and here Jason is, in Apokolips, of all places, to help a man that does not deserve it. This is proof that Jason is a good man but its also proof that he is an idiot in the New 52, I am sorry but come on, writing Jason this way after what Bruce did to him in issue 20 seems like DC is confirming the fact that even though Batman does the most horrible stuff to his kids, he can still get away with it because his kids still love him all the same.

I understand, loving your parents when they are flawed but Bruce had been written at this time like an abusive father, and he was written like that towards Jason and Dick, so it is not a good look. Bruce saying that he promises that he won’t do it anymore isn’t enough DC, make the man pay for being that way, make his kids stay away from him for a while (or forever).

And here is the other thing, I say that Bruce is Jason and Dick’s father but DC doesn’t, they only acknowledge Damian as Bruce’s son and they do it because the New 52 timeline is non-existent. After all, they deleted a lot of history from these characters, I think it’s fair to assume that Bruce never adopted Dick or Jason and that both of them were Robin for a very short time. What I am trying to say with this is that not only is Bruce getting away with being abusive but he is also getting away with being an abusive father. Because Bruce is their father, at least I see it that way, he isn’t just his friend/mentor/tutor he is their father. He used to be before New 52 and that’s not something that we as the readers are ready or want to let go of.

All in all, Jason didn’t do much in these issues thus confirming (to me, at least) that the only reason he was invited to the party was because they couldn’t use Dick. And that’s an insult to Jason’s character, it would have been better if Jason didn’t appear in this story and he actually had the chance to do something else, like go back to being the proper Red Hood, an anti-hero that does what Batman won’t do for Gotham and its people.

#jason todd #red hood #batman and robin #batman #robin #dc comics #batman and red hood #dick grayson #nightwing